A man originally charged in Indiana in his wife’s death last year now faces charges in Hamilton County instead.
Mohammed Mondal, 46, was indicted Wednesday by a Hamilton County grand jury after evidence showed his wife, Stacy Mondal, was actually shot and killed in Ohio as the couple drove from their Dearborn County residence to Colerain on Nov. 6, 2023, Dearborn Attorney General Lynn Deddens said in a Facebook post.
He is charged with five counts of murder and assault.
How did Stacy Mondal die?
Dearborn County Sheriff’s Office officers responded to St. Elizabeth Dearborn Hospital just before noon on November 6 to investigate a shooting and learned that Mondal had shot his wife several times.
According to Deddens’ latest Facebook post, the shooting occurred on Sand Run Road near the Ohio state line as the couple was on their way to an appointment to have photos taken of their 1-year-old and 2-month-old boys, who were strapped into child seats in the back seat.
During an interview with investigators, Mondal said he and his 40-year-old wife had been arguing and she reached for a gun in the open center console, Detective Jack Stevens wrote in an affidavit.
Mondal also alleged that his wife pointed the gun at him before grabbing a 9mm handgun he was carrying and shooting her, according to court documents. It was originally reported last year that Mondal’s wife had been shot seven times, but Deddens said in her Facebook post Thursday that it was six times.
In a follow-up interview the day after the incident, Mondal told investigators he had to open fire on his wife to “neutralize the threat,” the detective wrote. “Mondal said he remembers looking at the road but doesn’t know if he was still shooting while he was driving and he went blank and said, ‘I’m not the bad guy.’”
Mondal said he called 911 immediately after the shooting but hung up. He then called his neighbor, a sergeant with the Dearborn County Sheriff’s Office.
During that phone call, Mondal initially said the shooting was an accident before claiming he did it in self-defense, the affidavit said.
Deddens said in her Facebook post Thursday that Mondal took his wife to St. Elizabeth Hospital but was intercepted by Dearborn County Sheriff Shane McHenry and other officers, who escorted him to the hospital.
Before officers took Stacy Mondal to the hospital, they noticed a small black handgun on the passenger side floor near her feet. She had “little to no signs of life” when she was taken to the emergency room, the detective wrote.
Case moves to Hamilton County
Mondal was originally charged in Dearborn County following the incident and his trial was scheduled to begin on November 12 in county court.
However, the Dearborn County Prosecutor’s Office learned in mid-October that evidence indicated both the shooting and death most likely occurred in Ohio, Deddens said.
Deddens said the Indiana medical examiner previously said Stacy Mondal’s time of death was shortly after noon on Nov. 6, 2023, when she was pronounced dead at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Lawrenceburg. However, in October the defense consulted an expert, who said her death occurred within seconds of being shot.
The Indiana medical examiner re-evaluated the evidence and concluded that Stacy Mondal likely died within a much shorter time, possibly even within a few seconds, of sustaining her injuries, Deddens said.
“If the time of death is reduced to seconds or just a few minutes after Stacy Mondal was shot, there is very substantial evidence showing that Ms. Mondal died in Hamilton County, Ohio,” Deddens said in the post.
In light of the new information, the case was referred to the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office, as well as Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office detectives, who had assisted Dearborn County Sheriff’s Office deputies in the initial phase of the investigation.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Dearborn County man accused of shooting and killing wife charged in Ohio
