Crown calls for first-degree murder conviction in 2021 killing of Hanadi Mohamed

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Hamid Ayoub should be found guilty of murdering his wife, prosecutors and his defence lawyers agreed, as both set out their final arguments for the jury to decide whether the June 15, 2021 attack was first-degree or second-degree murder.

There was no dispute at his trial that Ayoub was an “angry, hurtful, abusive man” who murdered his estranged wife, Hanadi Mohamed, and stabbed their daughter as she tried to intervene in the brutal attack.

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Ayoub’s defence lawyer, Leo Russomanno, told the jury during the trial’s closing address last week they could conclude that Ayoub committed murder that day.

“He intended to kill Hanadi Mohamed and he intended to inflict grievous bodily harm on (their daughter) because she tried to intervene and protect her mother,” Russomanno said.

He asked jurors to recall that Ayoub, who is represented by Russomanno and Omar Abou El Hassan, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and aggravated assault at the outset of his trial on Sept. 16 in a plea that was rejected by the Crown.

Crown attorneys Louise Tansey and Cecilia Bouzane outlined their evidence of the planning and deliberation required for a first-degree murder conviction and told the jury Ayoub’s attack on his daughter — he stabbed her 12 times — was attempted murder.

Hanadi Mohamed was stabbed 39 times in broad daylight outside the Baseline Road apartment where she had been living after fleeing her husband’s abuse.

Mohamed suffered for 14 years as Ayoub “dominated and demeaned her,” Tansey told the jury, until she left him nine months before she was murdered.

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The Crown presented evidence that Ayoub had placed a tracking device on his son’s vehicle and used the software for months to pinpoint his estranged wife’s location and to track her movements as her son and daughter took her on errands.

Evidence presented at Ayoub’s trial showed two pathways for the jury to reach a guilty verdict on first-degree murder, Tansey said.

The evidence showed planning and deliberation, and also had elements of “watching and besetting” that could be considered criminal harassment, Tansey said, which would also meet the threshold for first-degree murder.

Ayoub installed the device in November 2020 and set it to “lost” a total of 68 times, Tansey said, and each time the software would notify him of the tracking device’s location.

He once sent a screenshot to his son of a street map indicating he knew the approximate location of Mohamed’s apartment.

The device was so well hidden that it was only discovered on the vehicle in September 2021, three months after the attack.

According to the Crown’s evidence, Ayoub set the device to “lost” on the day of the murder and received a notification at 6:18 p.m. that the device had been found at a nearby Walmart.

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He left his home on Edgeworth Avenue and was seen on surveillance video as he parked his car in a Circle K parking lot around the corner and out of sight of the apartment at 1814 Baseline Rd.

When he spotted Mohamed and their daughter returning from a grocery shopping trip, he said “not one word” as he approached with the knife, Tansey told the jury.

“Mr. Ayoub’s attack was silent and brutal. He was there for the sole purpose of murder,” Tansey said, describing the “catastrophic” injuries he inflicted on Mohamed as he “straddled her and repeatedly stabbed her.”

Ayoub “never wavered,” Tansey said, as their daughter “tried to protect her mother and fight him off.”

He stabbed his daughter as she tried to stop the attack, which only ended when she played dead after suffering life-threatening injuries to her back, abdomen and chest.

His daughter, who later testified at his trial, is not being named in media reports to protect her mental health.

He stabbed the women a total of 51 times in the daylight attack that was witnessed by numerous horrified onlookers.

Ayoub was followed in his car by one witness who recorded his licence plate and vehicle description as he left the scene.

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After murdering his wife and leaving his daughter for dead, Tansey said, Ayoub drove himself to the hospital with a deep self-inflicted gash that left the car soaked with blood.

He was arrested at the hospital hours later after a security guard noticed a vehicle matching the description sent out on a police alert.

Ayoub had changed his clothes and discarded the shirt he wore during the attack, along with the knife, which was never recovered.

He had placed one international call to an unknown recipient, Tansey said, and was arrested with a “getaway bag” containing $5,000 in Canadian currency and $3,000 in U.S. currency, along with toiletries, electronics, chargers and an assortment of identification.

Ayoub’s defence lawyers countered the Crown’s claim that Ayoub was planning a getaway to Sudan and said Ayoub’s passport, which was also found in the bag, was expired. Police also found “half a smoked joint” in the bag, Russomanno said.

“This is not evidence of a getaway bag. It is not evidence of planning and deliberation,” Russomanno said.

“It is not in dispute that Hamid Ayoub committed murder,” Russomanno said as he asked the jury to find his client guilty of second-degree murder.

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“Don’t excuse his violence. The evidence shows that Hamid Ayoub was an angry, hurtful, abusive man and his family were his victims. All of his volatility and dysfunction exploded in violence. But this was not the product of a calculated scheme that was deliberated upon. This is explosive violence — an impulsive act.”

The jury is set to receive instructions on Monday morning from Superior Court Justice Kevin Phillips, including the legal distinction between first-degree and second-degree murder, and will then begin deliberating on a verdict.

ahelmer@postmedia.com

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