Man pleads guilty to murdering friend, sentenced to life in prison
Walid Adam Mohamed stabbed and slashed his friend 24 times after an argument over marijuana and an unsubstantiated sexual assault allegation, a Saskatoon courtroom heard.
The sexual assault allegation was deemed “delusional,” as Mohamed was later diagnosed with schizophrenia, Crown prosecutor Matthew Miazga said Tuesday in presenting an agreed statement of facts in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.
On what was scheduled to be the opening day of his trial, the 30-year-old pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for killing his friend, 18-year-old Mohammed Omar.
Mohamed stabbed Omar in a vehicle and inside a Mac’s convenience store in Saskatoon’s Sutherland neighbourhood on April 24, 2016.
According to the agreed facts, the men were in a vehicle on their way to buy marijuana from the Mac’s parking lot on Central Avenue when Mohamed accused Omar of sexually assaulting him.
Court heard Mohamed stabbed Omar in the stomach with a knife he used to hollow out cigars and fill them with marijuana, causing Omar — who was driving — to jump a parking curb. Mohamed then continued the knife attack inside the convenience store, where Omar had sought refuge from the attack.
The stabbing was captured on surveillance video, which was not played in open court. Instead, Miazga described still images taken from the video, noting that at no time did Omar fight back while Mohamed stabbed him repeatedly, took a break, and then continued to stab him multiple times.
Omar died just as paramedics arrived.
Bouncers working at the nearby Sutherland Bar went to the store after a witness told them he saw a man with a knife following another man inside, Miazga told court. He said the witnesses reported hearing Mohamed say something to the effect of, “What would you do if he raped my sister?”
Although Mohamed was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was found to be delusional about the sexual assaults, doctors determined that he knew his actions were wrong and that he appreciated the nature of the act — two elements necessary to prove criminal responsibility.
“Just because you kill somebody for the wrong reason, you’re still going to be responsible for killing them. He was fully aware that when you stab someone repeatedly, you understand that’s going to hurt somebody and he appreciated that and he knew that was wrong,” Miazga said outside court.
Defence lawyer Lori Johnstone-Clarke said her client wanted to plead guilty instead of making an application to be found not criminally responsible.
Mohamed received the mandatory minimum sentence for second-degree murder — life imprisonment with no parole eligibility for 10 years.
His head hung low in the prisoner’s box as he heard how his actions completely ruined a once happy family who came to Canada from Iraq for a better life.
Omar was kind, smart and wanted to attend university to work with disabled children, his mother wrote in her victim impact statement. Court heard Omar moved from Winnipeg to Saskatoon to help take care of a friend’s autistic child a month before he was killed.
He met Mohamed through Saskatoon’s Muslim community. They were neighbours and went to the same mosque.
“He was like every human. He spoke of peace, love, unity for all humanity,” Omar’s father, Khattab Karim, said outside court.
“He was too bright. I miss him. I miss him a lot.”
Johnstone-Clarke said her client’s family story is similar — they came to Canada from Sudan. She said Mohamed’s mother feels like she also lost a son — not just to prison, but also to mental illness.
Mohamed apologized to Omar’s family and asked for forgiveness; he said he struggles to forgive himself.