Just like a wedding, the bride's family sat on one side of the aisle and the groom's on the other.

Only this time, the families were splitting apart, not coming together.

Accusations of murder can do that to in-law dynamics, and the seating arrangements Monday at the Sacramento Superior Court arraignment of Shajia Ayobi provided a public view of the estrangement resulting from the Dec. 18 shooting death of her husband, Ghulam Rabani Ayobi.

Sacramento police last week arrested Shajia Ayobi, and prosecutors have since filed a murder complaint that charges the 45-year-old Foothill Farms woman with personal use of the firearm in the shooting death of her husband that she initially blamed on robbers.

"They're accusing her of being the shooter," said her privately retained defense attorney, Peter Kmeto.

Shajia Ayobi's side of the family departed the courtroom immediately after her brief arraignment in front of Judge Tami R. Bogert. All they saw of Shajia was her labored shuffle into the courtroom holding cell, where she stood hunched at attention until she shuffled back to the lockup.

Kmeto told the judge he had yet to receive any of the police reports in the case. As of Monday's arraignment, no prosecutor had been assigned to it. The judge scheduled the next hearing for Feb. 24.

Ghulam Ayobi's sister, a brother-in-law, two nieces and a nephew sat in a row on the other side of the defendant's relatives. They remained after the hearing to talk first with a victim's advocate from the District Attorney's Office and then with the media.

One of the slain man's nieces described the split between the two sides of the family as "really sad."

"Up until yesterday, we were one family," Ferishta Kulaly said. "But today, they clearly drew the line to separate us. They were upset that we showed up in court. Their sister is behind bars. I understand the pain and agony they are going through.

"But she has a a voice," Kulaly said. "She has an attorney. She has her family. My uncle is 6 feet under ground. He has no voice."

A 53-year-old émigré from Afghanistan who worked as a cultural-sensitivity consultant for the U.S. Army, Ghulam Ayobi was shot and killed around midnight on the morning of Dec. 18 while he and his wife were driving on Interstate 80 to their Foothill Farms home from a Natomas area dinner party.

Police said Shajia Ayobi told them two robbers, a man and possibly a woman, had sneaked into their van while they were eating dinner. She said the mystery pair held the couple up at gunpoint while they were getting into their vehicle.

According to police, she said one of the assailants shot her husband in his passenger seat somewhere on the freeway. She told the police the robbers ordered her to pull over on the side of the freeway east of Northgate Boulevard so they could get away, investigators said. She then exited the freeway at Norwood Avenue where police met her, found her husband gravely injured and had him transported to a hospital, where he died.

Detectives discarded her robbery story and took her into custody last Thursday.

Although the defense lawyer said the complaint identifies the wife as the shooter, police spokeswoman Laura Peck said investigators still haven't determined for sure who pulled the trigger.

The niece said she and her family suspected Shajia Ayobi as the killer pretty much from the first time they saw her. The encounter came at 7:30 a.m. the morning after the killing. She described her aunt as surprisingly bloodless.

"Very normal," Ferishta Kulaly said, of Shajia Ayobi's affect. "No emotions whatsoever. You can tell when somebody is in shock versus someone who is prepared for this and it's careless and there's nothing in the heart. Hers was just as cold blood as cold can get."

Kulaly said they saw a news clip of Aunt Shajia when the police worked the scene at the Norwood Avenue offramp. It was the same thing.

"Any human being in their right or wrong mind would show some sort of emotion and reaction," Kulaly said. "She had none whatsoever. Absolutely nothing."

The way Kulaly described the Ayobi marriage, it wasn't the best. He worked on a military base in Louisiana and spent most of the time away from his wife and their four children, ages 12 through 17.

"I don't know the exact issues," the niece said. "He was overprotective of his wife and family. He did not want to discuss a whole lot with us. But from over the years, the things that we saw there were troubles that we noticed – but nothing where he deserved an execution.

"I don't care how bad the marriage is," Kulaly said. "There's always a way out."

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Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141. Follow him on Twitter @andyfurillo.

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