Man arrested, facing second-degree murder charge for 2015 Lee County cold case

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office has arrested a man they say is responsible for the 2015 death of a man found shot and burned in a car fire.

Deputies arrested Sunni Rasshad Jahbari, 31, on Saturday on a warrant. They say Jahbari is facing charges of second-degree murder, human trafficking, and robbery with a firearm in connection to a 2015 homicide investigation.

According to the sheriff’s office, the victim had been using the website ‘Backpage’ to be in contact with an underage girl. Backpage is known as a website where people go to find escorts.

Deputies say the victim had been in contact with that minor on the day he died and learned through cell phone data that the victim and the minor were in the same place in Lehigh Acres on that day.

On September 21, 2015, Lee County deputies responded to a car fire at the intersection of Venetia St E & Naples Ave D in Lehigh Acres. Inside the car was charred human remains. A postmortem examination determined the victim died from a gunshot wound, and the fire was set in an attempt to destroy evidence.

Detectives say the case went cold until new leads led them to Jahbari. Detectives learned Jahbari had been in an altercation with the victim stemming from a Backpage posting of a minor female who was being prostituted. The sheriff’s office says the minor was 15 years old at the time. During the altercation, the victim was shot and robbed by Jahbari.

Jahbari was located living in Los Angles, CA, and was recently arrested for attempted murder for shooting a victim in the leg. He was transported to the Lee County Jail, where he is currently being held without bond.