ROCKVILLE, Md. – An 18-year-old Potomac girl who admitted arranging to have sex for money with a man before her boyfriend hit him in the head with a shovel and killed him has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Emily Geller — who was 17 at the time of the May 2009 killing on a Potomac jogging trail — tearfully apologized Monday to the family of victim Ali Reza Zare of Gaithersburg, saying she never meant for him to die.
Geller pleaded guilty in July to first-degree murder in Montgomery County Circuit Court. Judge Joseph Dugan imposed the sentence agreed upon by Geller’s attorney and prosecutors — life in prison with all but 25 years suspended.
Prosecutors say Geller met Zare — a 57-year-old car salesman — when he offered her a ride several days before he was killed and she had sex with him in her basement for $60.
When the killing occurred, Geller had arranged to have sex for money again with Zare. Prosecutors say she lured him down a darkened path near Bells Mill Elementary School, where Geller’s boyfriend — Artie Ellis — hit Zare in the head with a shovel.
Ellis also has been sentenced to 25 years behind bars. He was 15 at the time of the murder.
During her sentencing Monday, Geller turned to Zare’s widow and apologized for causing the void in his family. But the judge called Geller manipulative, and questioned whether she has a conscience.
WTOP’s Neal Augenstein contributed to this report. Follow him on Twitter.
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