California man sentenced to 212 years for killing two disabled sons to collect life insurance

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Rescuers responded to a report of a vehicle in the harbor in San Pedro on April 9, 2015. (Credit: KTLA)

A 45-year-old California man who intentionally drove his disabled sons off a Port of Los Angeles wharf, drowning them, as part of a scheme to collect life insurance has been sentenced to 212 years in prison.

Ali Elmezayen of Hawthorne was convicted in October 2019 of 14 federal felony counts, including mail fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

U.S. District Judge John F. Walter cited the man’s “evil and diabolical scheme” and the “vicious and callous nature of his crimes,” while reading his maximum prison sentence.

“He is the ultimate phony and a skillful liar…and is nothing more than a greedy and brutal killer,” Walter said. “The only regret that the defendant has is that he got caught.”

According to the report, Elmezayen bought more than $3 million in life and accidental death insurance policies for himself and his family from multiple insurers beginning in July 2012, the same year he left a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding, investigators said. The final policy was purchased in March 2013.

On April 9, 2015 – 12 days after the contestability period on the final insurance policy expired – Elmezayen drove his ex-wife and their two youngest children off a commercial fishing dock at the San Pedro port, according to prosecutors.

He made it out of the submerged car by swimming through the open driver’s side window. His ex-wife, who couldn’t swim, escaped and was saved when a nearby fisherman threw her a flotation device.

Elmezayen collected more than $260,000 in insurance proceeds on the accidental death insurance policies he had taken out on the children’s lives. He used part of the insurance proceeds to purchase real estate in Egypt as well as a boat.

Prosecutors said Elmezayen lied repeatedly to law enforcement officers and insurance companies as well as in subsequent civil litigation he filed concerning the crash.