Life, no parole, sought for ‘monstrous’ murders

Zaman pleaded guilty last month to killing his Markham family in 2019

A man who slaughtered his family to save himself the embarrassment of having his double life exposed should have to wait 40 years before being eligible to apply for parole, a prosecutor said during a sentencing hearing Monday.

That would mean Menhaz Zaman, now 24, would have to wait until he is 64 before he could seek his release.

Monday’s proceeding took place in a virtual courtroom via Zoom. Bearded and wearing glasses and an orange jumpsuit, Zaman remained seated in a holding room at the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Ont. After a maskwearing guard unmuted the microphone, Zaman said he would like to respond to Superior Court Justice Michelle Fuerst’s invitation to address the court.

“I’m not sure who this going to reach, but I would like to just apologize to anyone I have impacted negatively with my actions and especially to the people who knew my family, and friends and loved ones who I know could never see something like this from me happening. I’m sorry.”

After the killings in the summer of 2019, Zaman sent text messages to friends that said he had been “planning this for 3 years,” and that while he was a “pathetic coward subhuman,” his “shaking has stopped.”

Last month, Zaman pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of his mother, Momotaz Begum, 50, and first-degree murders of his grandmother Firoza Begum, 70, sister Malesa

Zaman, 21, and father Moniruz Zaman, 59. York Regional police discovered their bodies in their Markham home.

In the years leading up to the carnage, Zaman’s family believed he had been attending York University for an engineering degree. They were about to learn of his deception, as he had told them he was set to graduate on July 28, 2019. In fact, he had dropped out of Seneca College for electronics engineering due to failing grades and was spending his days at a local shopping mall, gym and playing video games at the family home.

Hours after the killings, Zaman’s confession to online friends triggered international attempts to alert authorities.

Each count of murder carries an automatic life sentence. When an offender is found guilty of multiple murders, it is up to a judge to determine whether the periods of parole eligibility will count concurrently or consecutively. Four murders could potentially bring a parole ineligibility period of 100 years.

The Crown and defence are jointly recommending Zaman be sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance at parole for 40 years for the four killings — 15 years for his mother’s second-degree murder plus 25 years each for the three firstdegree murders, served concurrently.

Zaman told police he killed his mother first at about 3 p.m. on July 27, 2019, and then his grandmother about an hour later. Their throats were cut, according to an agreed statement of facts.

He then “sat around playing video games” waiting to kill his sister and father after they returned home from their jobs, Crown attorney Kevin Stewart said Monday. Autopsies showed he struck them each on the head, likely with a crowbar, and then cut their throats as they lay on the floor.

“These were horrible, monstrous, brutal killings. They took place in the family home,” Stewart said, noting that’s supposed to “be a place of security and sanctity.”

The killings have a profound impact on the family, friends and the community at large, Stewart continued. “To have them killed, and to have their own flesh and blood responsible for these killings is beyond comprehension.”

If the case had gone to trial, there would have been a “triable” issue of whether the killing of his mother was planned and deliberate.

Fuerst, who sits in the Newmarket courthouse, said she will sentence Zaman next Monday.