St. Laurent mall killer to serve minimum 10 years for second-degree murder

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Kelly Maloney spoke to her son Marcus for the final time over the phone from the St. Laurent Shopping Centre on Sept. 16, 2022, when he called her and asked for an e-transfer for lunch money and party supplies for his 19th birthday party.

“I never thought that this would be our last ‘I love you,’” she said in court Thursday during an emotional reading of victim impact statements from Marcus Maloney’s grieving family and friends.

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His mother told court she could hear “a commotion in the background” on that last phone call. She only learned later the devastating news that Maloney had been fatally stabbed during a melee that erupted in a mall hallway that afternoon.

Maloney was four days shy of his 19th birthday when he died.

Mohamed Osman, who was 18 when he stabbed and killed Maloney, will serve at least 10 years in prison before he is eligible for parole after Crown prosecutors and Osman’s defence lawyers reached a joint position on his sentence for second-degree murder.

“This horrible senseless act has damaged our family forever,” Kelly Maloney said Friday. “Not a day goes by without tears, questions and anger. Every day has been overwhelming for us all.”

Maloney’s two younger sisters wrote impact statements describing the horror of learning about their brother’s death from social media.

The melee that erupted outside the Dollarama store that day was captured on cell phone videos that later circulated on social media, showing the killing blow as Osman is seen exiting the store with a stolen kitchen knife and stabbing Maloney.

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Maloney’s sisters said their last memory of their brother was seeing the video of his violent death and the aftermath as “the crowd filmed his final moments.”

Osman was also sentenced to two concurrent four-year terms for aggravated assault after he stabbed and injured two of Maloney’s friends who came to his defence.

Crown attorneys John Semenoff and Robin McLachlan said the 10-year term falls within the appropriate range for second-degree murder and cited Osman’s youth — he turned 18 three months before the murder — the fact he had no prior criminal record and his potential for rehabilitation.

“This was a series of catastrophically bad decisions,” McLachlan said. “They were terrible decisions, but they were made between the space of less than a minute.… This occurred in the context of a fight that was about to begin or had already begun.”

Maloney and his friends had gone to the St. Laurent mall that afternoon “to stick up for a friend and co-worker” who had been harassed by a group of teenagers on a bus the previous day.

The confrontation began when they recognized Osman’s friend as one of the teens from the bus and the two groups started yelling and swearing at each other.

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Osman testified in his own defence at his trial and told the jury, “I was scared I was going to be badly beaten or killed.”

Prosecutors countered by saying Osman took a mere “one second” to assess the threat his friend was facing when he went into the Dollarama and stole the knife, dodged a security guard and then “immediately attacked” Maloney.

“His life was taken when it was still just getting started… and it is clear that his loss is deeply felt,” McLachlan said.

Maloney’s friends and family filled the courtroom on Thursday, along with members of Osman’s family.

“This was a waste also of (Osman’s) young life and his potential,” McLachlan said. “Two young men were taken away from their families, their friends and their community.”

Osman’s defence lawyer, Ewan Lyttle, said Osman expressed his remorse and accepted responsibility for the crime. He admitted to the stabbings from an early stage and much of the Crown’s evidence was uncontested during his trial.

Osman has “chosen to better himself” since he turned himself into police and has completed his high school education while incarcerated.

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Osman also has the strong family support of his siblings and his mother, who Lyttle described as “an extraordinary woman” who raised eight children as a single mother and fled war-torn Eritrea as a refugee when Osman was five.

“This is a very sad situation,” Superior Court Justice Hugh McLean said. “Terrible decisions were made, and, as a result, somebody lost his life.”

McLean turned to Maloney’s family and acknowledged the “devastating effect” his murder continues to have on their lives.

“I hope somehow through this process you will be able to find, if not closure, then at least something to assuage your grief,” the judge said.

Turning to Osman, he said, “We are dealing with an individual who, hopefully, will understand the gravity of what he did and can be rehabilitated… and I appreciate the impact this has had on his family, as well as the people who have lost Mr. Maloney.”

The murder conviction carries a life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 years.

ahelmer@postmedia.com

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