FAIRFAX, Va. — A man convicted of the 2023 slaying of his girlfriend at a Fairfax County park was sentenced Friday to 40 years in prison, after a judge cited the defendant’s heavy use of psychedelic mushrooms on the night of the killing as one of his mitigating factors.
Rami El-Sayed, 36, was sentenced by Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Michael Devine on charges of first-degree murder and concealing a dead body. Prosecutors, who detailed a brutal attack in which El-Sayed stabbed Cara Abbruscato 17 times, had sought a life sentence for the murder charge.
Under the state’s highest sentencing guidelines, the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office requested up to 46 years behind bars for both the murder charge, which has a maximum sentencing of 40 years and 6 months, and the concealing charge…