Man convicted in savage knifing of MD
Calvin Nimoh guilty of murder for attack on doc during nightly walk
A jury has convicted Calvin Nimoh of first-degree murder for stabbing Dr. Mark Ernsting nine times in the back, head, face and neck while the cancer researcher was out for his nightly walk in downtown Toronto on Dec. 15, 2015.
Nimoh will receive an automatic life sentence with no parole eligibility for 25 years. The jury retired Thursday afternoon and returned Friday at around 7 p.m.
“I’m just glad for Mark’s husband and his family that there was the best possible conclusion,” Toronto police homicide Det. Paul Worden said. “Even in his short life he made a great contribution to society so I’m glad we were able to get justice for the family.”
Jurors rejected the defence argument that the 24-year-old killer acted “impulsively” after Ernsting propositioned him for sex just before 9:30 p.m.
Defence lawyer Charn Gill said Nimoh was guilty of manslaughter because there was no evidence of the planning and deliberation required for a firstdegree murder conviction.
But the Crown said there was nothing impulsive about Nimoh’s savagery, that he had no money, no job and set out to commit a robbery.
“Ernsting didn’t say one word to Mr. Nimoh, because he never got the chance,” prosecutor Lindsay Kromm told the jury.
After the attack, Ernsting, 39, was found dead on the sidewalk, a knife blade wedged so firmly in his skull it required two adults to remove at the autopsy, she said during her closing address.
“He (Nimoh) came into court and told more lies about the event and about my husband,” Ernsting’s husband, Robert Iseman, told reporters in a statement. “Thankfully the jury was able to see through his lies and properly convict him.”
During the month-long trial, the Crown alleged that two hours before killing Ernsting, Nimoh and two female accomplices robbed theatre director Glynis Brownsey in a park near the Summerhill subway station. Nimoh testified he was not involved, except for providing a balaclava to the women.
Superior Court Justice David McCombs allowed Brownsey to testify about the mugging be- cause of the “similar fact” evidence in relation to the Crown’s theory.
The jury also heard about Nimoh’s history of street robberies since he alleged his two female companions committed the first robbery.
The jury was not told Nimoh has four robbery convictions and one assault causing bodily harm conviction, and had used a knife in past street robberies. Nor were jurors made aware that Nimoh and two others are alleged to have attacked another inmate in a cell at the Toronto South Detention Centre in June 2017.
He was originally charged with attempt murder, aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence but was only committed on aggravated assault and conspiracy because the victim recovered. No court date has been set.
Last month, Nimoh’s first trial got off to a false start after a juror looked up the judge and accused on the internet, and then told fellow jurors about what he had done. Another juror reported what had happened to McCombs, who declared a mistrial.
Another jury was picked and Ernsting’s husband was forced to testify for a second time.
The juror who caused the mistrial emailed Iseman after the retrial started, offering his sympathies and a copy of a newspaper story about Nimoh facing charges in connection to the jailhouse beating.