Florida seeks death penalty for illegal alien in shooting death of sister-in-law

A Bangladeshi national who repeatedly entered the US illegally after being deported has been indicted in the execution-style killing of his sister-in-law, whose body was found on the side of a Florida road last year, prosecutors announced Friday.
Shahidul Islam, 44, was indicted Wednesday by a Lake County grand jury on a charge of first-degree premeditated murder in the May 2, 2025, slaying of 44-year-old Monica Islam, State Attorney Bill Gladson said.
Prosecutors, who are seeking the death penalty, argued that the horrible crime never should have happened in the first place had the system worked properly.
“This crime was completely preventable,” Gladson said while detailing Islam’s long and staggering history with America’s immigration bureaucracy.
Investigators allege Monica’s husband Rashedul Islam and his brother Shahidul had been previously accused of domestic violence against her in a December 2024 case, according to media reports.
Monica, 44, was last seen at the convenience store where her daughter worked before surveillance footage allegedly captured her walking toward Islam’s car. Then she vanished.
At about 7 a.m., a passerby made a grisly discovery near an intersection outside Mount Dora: a woman’s body abandoned on the roadside. She had been shot in the head.
Investigators said phone records and online activity revealed his numerous “suspicious” searches about murder on the morning of the killing.
A search warrant for Islam’s vehicle uncovered a shattered passenger-side window, a bullet projectile lodged in the door and bloodstains inside the vehicle — as DNA testing matched the blood to Monica, prosecutors said.
Islam allegedly rented another car and bolted for sanctuary in New York City following the murder.
According to Gladson, Islam had spent more than half a decade bouncing through the immigration system.
Gladson said court and immigration records show Islam had been deported, illegally re-entered the US, served a 10-month federal prison sentence for an immigration offense and was later released under supervision.
Prosecutors allege he failed to report to his probation officer and disappeared, using aliases while traveling around the country.
Then Monica crossed his path.
“No family should ever have to endure the pain of such a senseless and horrific attack of violence as this one,” Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia said in a statement. “Shahidul Islam Illegally enetered our country after being deported, committed this heinous crime, and then fled to a sanctuary city.”
He was eventually located in New York thanks to a joint law enforcement operation, prosecuted on a federal immigration charge and returned to Lake County to face the murder case, authorities said.
Florida “will continue to stand firm against crime, sanctuary cities and illegal immigration,” and “will never apologize for putting the safety of law-abiding families first,” Ingoglia said.