An American “hitwoman” who attempted to murder a business owner before going on the run in Armenia has been jailed for 30 years at Birmingham crown court.

Earlier this month, Aimee Betro, 45, from Wisconsin was found guilty of conspiracy to murder, possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and an offence relating to the importation of ammunition into the UK, after a three-week trial.

During the murder attempt, Betro had disguised herself by dressing in a niqab, a face covering worn by some Muslim women, to hide her identity as she tried to shoot dead Sikander Ali outside his east Birmingham home in September 2019.

She fired the gun at point-blank range as her victim arrived home in his car to the cul-de-sac where he lived in South Yardley, but the weapon jammed or malfunctioned, and he managed to speed away unharmed.

Betro then returned hours later and fired three bullets through the bedroom windows of the family home, but again, no one was hurt.

Betro’s murder attempt was part of a revenge plot arranged by father and son Mohammed Aslam and Mohammed Nazir from Derbyshire, after a long-running dispute the men had with Ali’s father, Aslat Mahumad.

In July 2018, Nazir and Aslam were injured during disorder at Mahumad’s clothing boutique in Birmingham, which led them to conspire to have someone kill him or a member of his family.

In November 2024 the pair, who had denied any wrongdoing, were convicted after a trial. Nazir was sentenced to 32 years for offences including conspiracy to murder, while his father, Aslam, was sentenced to 10 years.

Betro was recruited by her long-distance boyfriend Nazir, who she had met online on a dating app, and flew to the UK in August 2019 to carry out the planned killing in Birmingham the next month.

Telephone evidence recovered by West Midlands police revealed Betro had visited Nazir in Derby in September 2019. Video footage on his mobile phone showed a gun being test-fired on wasteland near the A38; the weapon jammed during filming, as happened during the murder attempt three days later.

Betro texted a message to the father of the man she had tried to kill, saying: “Stop playing hide n seek. You’re lucky it jammed. Who is it? Your family or you? Pick one.”

Hours after her failed murder attempt, Betro fled the country, first to the US, and then to Armenia, from where she was eventually extradited to face trial.

In a separate foiled plot, Betro sent illegal ammunition from the US to a man in Derbyshire, another rival of Nazir’s, so that he would be arrested.

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Betro showed no emotion as Judge Simon Drew KC sentenced her to 30 years in prison, with concurrent sentences of six years for possessing a firearm and two years for fraudulently evading the prohibition on importing ammunition.

He said: “You went beyond simply reaching an agreement to kill and, in reality, you did intend to kill Mr Ali. It is only a matter of chance that Mr Ali wasn’t killed.

“You were engaged in a complex, well planned conspiracy to murder. You were prepared to pull the trigger and did so on two separate occasions.”

“So far as you are concerned, clearly you had a leading role. I accept that Nazir recruited you, but you were the gunwoman,” the judge added. “You were the person who was prepared to fire the gun, as a result you showed that you were willing to carry out the killing yourself.”

Addressing Betro, Drew said: “So far as mitigation is concerned, I take into account your antecedent history, your age, the fact that you will serve some or all of your sentence in a UK prison, far away from home, and the contents of your letter in which you express remorse for your actions.”