Exec Sentenced in Wife's Assault

NEW YORK (AP) â€” A former securities executive who admitted bashing his wife's head and face with a 10-pound barbell has been sentenced to eight years and three months in prison. <br><br>Aftab Islam

Saturday, August 26th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) â€” A former securities executive who admitted bashing his wife's head and face with a 10-pound barbell has been sentenced to eight years and three months in prison.

Aftab Islam pleaded guilty earlier this month to first-degree assault in the April 22, 1999, attack on Theresa Havell. He said he was angry that Havell had asked for a divorce, and that wine, prescription drugs and marital problems had made him lose control and hit her.

``I am truly sorry for the pain and suffering I have caused my wife and children,'' Islam, 59, said at his sentencing hearing Friday.

Havell's skull was fractured and she needed more than 100 stitches to close head wounds. The 53-year-old millionaire investment executive said the plea deal was a denial of justice and closure for her family.

``In honesty, in contrition, the defendant should have been required to admit both what he intended to do and what he in fact did do,'' Havell said.

Islam had been charged with attempted murder, punishable by up to 25 years in prison.

Assistant District Attorney John Martin said the plea bargain was struck to spare Islam's children â€” three of whom saw the attack â€” the trauma of testifying against their father.

Islam, a native of Pakistan, was laid off several years ago by Citicorp Securities Markets Inc., where he was a vice president. He was unemployed when he was arrested.

Havell made a name for herself in investment circles while working for Neuberger Berman Management Inc., where she oversaw a $12 billion portfolio. She left there in 1996 and founded Havell Capital Management.