Man to serve 50 years for 2007 beating death

On a Thursday night in February 2007, Anthony Sherman sat down and talked to his daughter, Anna.

“She told me about her dreams and goals. For the first time in a long time I listened with interest,” he said. “I watched a young girl cross the line into womanhood that night.”

It was one of the last times he would speak to his daughter.

Anna Sherman, 21, was found in dead in a Dumpster in Alexandria just two days later.

Monday, a judge in Prince William Circuit Court sentenced Frederick Simon Ajlan, 28, to life in prison, with all but 50 years suspended, for her death.

Witnesses said that Sherman, who was almost five months pregnant, planned to meet with Ajlan, the father of her unborn son, to give him documents to absolve him of responsibility for the child.

Police believe that Ajlan beat and kicked Sherman to death at his parents’ house, in the 16100 block of Edgewood Drive in Montclair, on Feb. 9, 2007.

He then put her body in a duffel bag and left it in a Dumpster in Alexandria.

A medical examiner said Sherman died of trauma to the head, neck and chest.

During a preliminary hearing for the case, a witness testified that Ajlan said he wanted to cause Sherman to have a miscarriage. The witness said Ajlan did not want his wife to find out he was having an affair.

In September Ajlan entered an Alford plea to first-degree murder. In an Alford plea a defendant does not admit guilt, but acknowledges that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him.

During Monday’s sentencing hearing, Sherman’s mother, Susan Sherman, said her daughter would not consider having an abortion and wanted to raise the baby herself.

“She loved the baby and wanted to do right by the baby,” Susan Sherman said.

Anthony Sherman said he tried to talk his daughter out of meeting with Ajlan that night.

“I just had a bad gut feeling about that evening,” he said.

Sherman’s parents said they have been waiting for the sentencing hearing so they could have closure.

“I think that after today we’ll be able to feel like we’re a family again,” Susan Sherman said.

Also during the hearing, Ajlan’s family members asked for mercy, for the sake of Ajlan’s wife and young daughter.

“I beg of you to please consider his wife and daughter,” Ajlan’s brother, Jason Ajlan, said . “I know he’s not an animal and I know he’s not a killer.”

Reading from a written statement, Ajlan apologized to Sherman’s family and to his own family.

“I never planned to hurt Annie or her son and if I could bring them back right now I would. But I can’t,” he said. “I can’t really describe how badly I feel about what I did. I just don’t have the words.”

Staff writer Amanda Stewart can be reached at 703-878-8014.