It started off as a high school romance.
Mark K. Makki and Aramis Mizani were in their mid-teens when they met, both the offspring of Iranian immigrants who chose Montgomery County to escape the revolution that swept through their homeland in the late 1970s.
They were average students, relatives said. Neither was class president. Neither was class clown. Their tempered personalities clicked, and the relationship -- much to the chagrin of the boy's mother -- endured five years of highs and lows.
Now, that relationship has emerged as a possible motive in the Oct. 6 fatal beating and strangulation of Makki's mother, Shohreh Seyed-Makki, according to Montgomery police. Makki, 23, is charged with killing Seyed-Makki in their Potomac home. At the time of the arrest, police noted that Makki and his mother often clashed over his girlfriend, whom she disliked.
The killing, which authorities have declined to describe in detail, has thrust into the limelight a private feud between two families now united by intense public scrutiny and a high-profile criminal investigation.
Makki's family members say they believe he is innocent. Police say they still believe they charged the right man, despite DNA evidence from the crime scene that a law enforcement source said shows an unidentified man came into contact with Seyed-Makki shortly before she was killed.
Through his attorney, Makki declined to comment. Mizani could not be reached.
Makki's supporters acknowledge that the relationship was a sour issue for the 54-year-old victim, but they say it certainly was not one to kill over.
"Mark would choose his mom over his girlfriend, and that was clear to both parties," said Amirreza Vaziri, 24, a close friend of Makki's. "So there was never a situation where he had to choose."
Mizani, 21, met Makki a few years after her mother drowned in Ocean City in 1995. As the relationship progressed, her problems grew, her half brother Cory Levy said.
Mizani developed chronic back pain, which worsened after what Levy described as a botched surgery. The ailment became unbearable, affecting her studies and making her dependent on powerful painkillers that sometimes cloud her judgment, according Levy, 31.
In the late 1990s, her family's finances deteriorated, Levy said. Her father, Ahmad "Eddie" Mizani, a carpet salesman, was convicted of tax evasion, court records show. Deportation proceedings subsequently were initiated against him. The government often deports green card holders who have been convicted of felonies.
