DENVER — A man wanted in connection with a 2019 murder in the Denver metro area was sentenced to life in prison for a murder in Texas, and the Colorado case is pending.
Abbas Abdal Abed, 47, fled from Colorado to Texas after he allegedly killed 31-year-old Chelsea Anne Snider at the InTown Suites along the 2900 block of W. Hampden Avenue in Sheridan on Dec. 2, 2019.
Snider died of blunt force trauma and stab wounds.
She was a mother of three. Friends called her a beautiful person, inside and out. She had struggled with substance abuse and homelessness, but was loved, they told Denver7.
Abed, who was an Uber driver in Colorado, had lived in Houston previously and knew several people, including Abdulrahman Haris, 29. Both of them were refugees from Iraq who had come to Houston around the same time before Abed moved out of state, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office in Texas.
On Dec. 15, 2019 — less than two weeks after Snider's death — Haris allegedly gave Abed money and they were en route to a Walmart in southwest Houston with Haris driving when Abed stabbed him. Haris pulled over and ran out of the car and Abed took the car, the district attorney's office said.
Haris, who had been stabbed in the neck and abdomen, died of his injuries.
Abed was arrested two weeks later in early January 2020 at a homeless shelter in Houston, the district attorney's office said. The U.S. Marshal Service had posted flyers in the area asking people to keep an eye out for Abed, as he was still wanted in connection with the Colorado homicide before the Texas homicide.
Abed was convicted this month in the death of Haris in Texas. Late Thursday, he was sentenced to life in prison and must serve at least 30 years before he is eligible for parole, the district attorney's office said.
Meanwhile, his murder case in Colorado is pending.
“Houston is a big and diverse city, and someone on the run may think they can hide out here. But the cohesiveness of our community is our strength, and we will find and prosecute fugitives,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said after the Texas sentencing. “It is a tragedy that a young man lost his life because someone he barely knew was trying to escape any responsibility and accountability.”
