Former store owner sentenced to 5 years for murder plot

WINNIPEG A former Winnipeg convenience store owner has been sentenced to five years in prison for plotting to murder his business partner.

Amare Gebru, who is 44, was found guilty in June of conspiracy to commit murder in 2012.

Gebru, a landed immigrant, faces deportation to his home country of Ethiopia after serving his sentence.

Court heard during Gebru’s trial that he conspired to kill his female business partner, who had also immigrated to Winnipeg, as a way out of a toxic work environment.

They bought Teddy’s convenience store together in 2011 in what was supposed to be a 50-50 deal, but each of them testified that the other had contributed less money to the purchase.

Gebru’s lawyer says he’s been instructed to appeal the conviction and the sentence.

Mike Cook had asked the judge for a sentence of six months less a day to avoid his client’s deportation.

“Six months or more triggers the deportation proceedings. I wanted to avoid that,” Cook said Monday.

Gebru has said that he was politically outspoken in Ethiopia and that he believes he will be imprisoned and tortured if deported.

He has had his landed immigrant status since 2006 but isn’t a Canadian citizen.

His family members were inconsolable and visibly upset over the sentence.

Gebru, who is married with three children, testified that he was actually the intended victim of a convoluted murder plot.