July 13, 2021- 8:11 p.m.
A man covered in blood approached another outside a Catholic parish in Baytown to reveal something had happened to his wife.
“I think my wife is dead,” said Mohamed Hismath, now charged with capital murder in his wife’s death.
Harris County court records outling the charge against Hismath included details of that late Sunday morning conversation outside St. Joseph Catholic Church. The other man, who saw the blood on Hismath’s hands and clothes, convinced him to stay at the church— where Mass was coming to an end — until police could arrive.
By that moment, a son’s worried call to Baytown authorities around 11:30 a.m. Sunday had already led officers to the body of 62-year-old Sabara Umma, Hismath’s estranged wife, outside an apartment in the 3100 block of Decker Drive. Umma’s son earlier warned that day that Hismath — his stepfather — had kidnapped her.
Police said they believe Hismath grabbed her from behind at her Baytown home as she spoke to a relative on the phone. Hismath then forced her into a car and drove her to his Decker Drive apartment, about 4 miles from the church.
Hismath described the attack, where he used an ax, in a recorded interview with investigators, according to court documents.
He arrived at his apartment with Umma and realized then that he dropped his keys near where he abducted her, according to authorities.
In that moment, she pushed him away and he returned to his vehicle to grab the bladed weapon. He approached Umma as she set on the steps to his apartment and struck her “multiple times in the upper torso region and neck area,” according to police. He left her body on the ground and drove away.
Hismath was denied bail Tuesday in a probable cause hearing. He has no known arrests in Harris County.
