Prosecutors say the man that allegedly murdered a Rancho Peñasquitos woman last year also dragged her into an SUV by her hair seven months before he killed her.
NBC 7 Investigates has been reporting about the killing of 44-year-old Connie Dadkhah since last June. Our reporting revealed major concerns about how long it took San Diego police to arrive at her condo complex that night. Records show several neighbors called 911 repeatedly, begging officers to help her after they say they saw a man smash his way inside through a balcony sliding-glass door.
Connie Dadkhah
“I’ve never heard somebody that angry in my entire life,” a neighbor named Sally told us. “He was running so hard that I genuinely thought he might break through the ceiling. I remember saying verbatim, ‘He’s going to kill her.’”
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
Once they arrived at the complex, police opted not to force their way inside her unit. The next morning, officers arrested 46-year-old Parrish Chambers, Jr.
In the months that followed his arrest, prosecutors added several new charges, including a false imprisonment charge from an incident on Nov. 2, 2021, where Chambers allegedly dragged Connie by her hair into her SUV and drove away. On Tuesday, San Diego County Judge Joan Weber ruled there was enough probable cause to add that charge to Chamber’s murder trial later this year.
The court heard testimony from a witness who described the attack. Prosecutors also played a video Connie recorded from her cell phone as well as audio from her 911 call where she could be heard screaming for help.
Officers testified that Dadkhah and Chambers went to an ATM in a shopping center in Mountain View around 1:30 a.m. that morning. At some point, evidence shows they got into an argument.
Video Connie recorded shows an exchange where she’s repeatedly asking Chambers to get out of her car. In court, it was difficult to discern what Chambers was saying at times. Here’s the beginning of the recording:
Connie Dadkhah: “It’s my car, I can look for it. OK, he’s in my car and he’s um … I have my purse in my car, he’s looking for … I don’t know, money, um whatever he needs. Um, he’s in the driver’s seat.”
Parrish Chambers: [Unintelligible]
Connie Dadkhah: “This is my car, man!”
Parrish Chambers: [Unintelligible]
Connie Dadkhah: “No! Get out! Get out, psycho! I need my car. Get out! My god! What’s wrong with you man? I’m not your child! Get your own car.”
In the minutes that followed, the conversation gets more heated.
The SUV is seen driving off moments later and the video ends. Another witness, a San Diego Police Department employee, testified about the 911 call Dadkhah made.
Dispatcher: “San Diego Emergency Dispatcher 8599. Hi, do you need fire or paramedics?”
Connie Dadkhah: “Hi I need somebody to send out, I think, police. I had a friend of mine took my car from me. I’m in a parking lot without my purse. I don’t have anything on me but my phone. He’s um, out of his mind. He’s just um he pushed me, in the passenger seat and um, pushed me and said that he’s going to get the car and he doesn’t give a [profanity]. And he just uh, drove off.”
Connie is heard attempting to give the dispatcher her location. Before she’s able to do that, the call records the sounds of the confrontation between herself and Chambers becoming more heated. She repeatedly asks him to calm down. Then she’s heard screaming “no” and “don’t” before crying out in pain. Prosecutors say Chambers can be heard profanely yelling at her during the alleged attack, often threatening her with violence.
They weren’t alone in the parking lot that early morning. Michael McCarthy, a parking lot sweeper, was working an overnight shift. He testified that he saw the pair loudly arguing for several minutes.
“I heard two people arguing,” McCarthy said. “Kinda like the man telling the female what to do. To get into the car, giving her orders and stuff.”
McCarthy says he purposefully moved his street-sweeper vehicle closer to the pair to keep an eye on what was happening and was hoping his presence might prevent any violence. But he said that didn’t prevent what he saw next.
“I was kind of wondering if this was an abduction or just two couples arguing,” McCarthy said. “He got within five feet and he just lunged out and grabbed her. I mean just grabbed her. And he just drug her back to the car … opened the door and kind of push, push, push her in. And, oh, as he’s dragging her in he's saying, you know, we gotta get out of here, the police are coming.”
Both McCarthy and two officers testified that Chambers and Connie were gone when they arrived. But more than 17 hours later, other officers, including Officer Ian McNett, made contact with Connie after receiving another call about a disturbance at a strip mall east of Mission Valley.
Public Defender Abe Genser asked McNett if it appeared that Connie was under the influence of narcotics, after earlier telling the court that she was “high out of her mind.”
Deputy District Attorney Trisha Amador responded, “Defense counsel’s assertion that the victim was quote high out of her mind end quote, there’s no evidence to support that. There’s no facts, there’s no proposed testimony. That is simply speculation on the part of defense counsel, which may or may not be his theory defense for trial.”
Officer McNett testified about Connie’s behavior.
“She was upset and agitated, she appeared to have difficulty concentrating, and difficulty answering questions, and difficulty compiling the events in a chronological order,” Mcnett said. “So it was relatively difficult getting a statement from her. Eventually, I was able to get a general idea of what she was trying to convey to me.”
Officers detained Chambers nearby but did not arrest him or charge him with a crime associated with anything that happened on November 2, 2021.
“He was not placed under arrest because the crime that I had established would be a misdemeanor and it would be considered a stale misdemeanor,” McNett said.
However, on October 20, 2021, a judge revoked Chamber's probation for a 2020 vandalism charge and ordered a warrant for his arrest. In that case, property belonging to Connie was damaged. Court records show Chambers failed to report to law enforcement. The bench warrant was still in effect on November 2, 2021. Chambers appeared in court on November 11, 2021.
On Tuesday, a judge ruled there was enough evidence to arrest and try Chambers with felony false imprisonment for what happened on November 2, 2021.
Another part of that probation ordered Chambers to stay away from Connie, but we uncovered that police don’t always have access to information about previous calls or probation information.
Chambers has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, two counts of battery, and this false imprisonment charge. He’ll face a jury when his trial starts in August.
