BY DOUG GRAHAM | Staff writer A jury has convicted former Baton Rouge auto dealer Hamid Ghassemi of pulling the strings in the brutal killing of his ex-wife, who was beaten, drugged, kidnapped, shot several times and left to die in a shallow grave on the side of a remote highway in April 2015. It took a jury two hours of deliberations to find Ghassemi guilty of first-degree murder following four days of arguments and testimony. He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 19 and faces mandatory life imprisonment. Baton Rouge will receive nearly $30 million to fight its drug crisis. The funds will be used to implement state-approved abatement strategies to educate and treat people suffering from opioid use disorder, the mayor’s office said. The money comes from a multi-billion-dollar settlement that leading pharmaceutical companies agreed to in a federal lawsuit over the country’s ongoing opioid epidemic. TJ Ribs closed its Siegen Lane restaurant last week. On Tuesday, its replacement was announced. The building will be torn down, and two stand-alone national restaurants will be constructed, including a Chipotle Mexican Grill. Plans are to start demolishing the TJ Ribs building in the next 30 to 45 days. The new restaurants should be open by April or May, representatives said. | 