Man found guilty of killing roommate
Adonay Zekarias currently serving life in prison for 2012 murder of another woman
A man accused of killing his roommate to keep her from revealing a previous murder has been found guilty of seconddegree murder and one count of indignity to a dead human body.
Adonay Zekarias is presently serving life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years for the murder of Nighisti Semret, a woman he was found to have stabbed in a Cabbagetown laneway in October 2012.
On Monday, Justice Michael Brown found Zekarias, 41, guilty of the second- degree murder of his roommate, Rigat Ghirmay, whose dismembered remains were found in a duffel bag 5 1⁄ minutes 2 away from Zekarias’ apartment in May 2013. More remains were found on April 2016.
“Mr. Zekarias’s dismemberment of Ms. Ghirmay and his disposal is consistent with someone who caused her death,” said Justice Brown in his decision.
Brown cited security video footage showing the two entering Ghirmay’s Shuter St. apartment on May 15 at 7:58 p.m. Zekarias leaves the apartment at 8:04 a.m. the following day, alone and empty-handed. In the footage, he is seen returning several times within three hours with a black bag, then a black suitcase and backpack. He leaves with each one and doesn’t bring them back.
At one point he is seen in the footage cleaning the elevator and lobby floor with a white rag. At 1:39 p.m. on May 15, he is wearing different clothes and carries a partially full black garbage bag and laundry detergent. Ghirmay was never seen leaving the apartment again.
Court heard the two were close friends who met at a 2010 Eritrean festival. They lived together in 2012, and moved to separate apartments the next year. They were in regular contact and seen together often. In his decision, Brown said Zekarias’s actions in the lead-up to Ghirmay’s disappearance were “consistent with someone who caused Ghirmay’s death unlawfully.”
Ghirmay’s DNA profile was found on the blue jeans Zekarias was wearing the day she was last seen on security footage. Cigarettes and cigarette butts were found in her apartment — Ghirmay didn’t smoke, but Zekarias did, said the Justice. A bottle of bleach was found in her apartment, as was Zekarias’ DNA on a blue cleaning glove.
Despite this, the pathologist was not able to determine a cause of death based on the remains that were recovered, so part of his decision was based on circumstantial evidence, Brown said. The remains were skeletal with very little remaining tissue or skin, although forensic examination did determine all her organs were healthy.
Brown said, as the Crown stated during the trial, Zekarias believed Ghirmay to have been aware or soon to be aware of his involvement in Semret’s murder.
Zekarias will be sentenced in July.