‘Unforgivable sin’ cost drug dealer his life, Crown says
Mohamed Najdi committed an “unforgivable sin” in the drug world when he told police what he saw and who was responsible when a man was killed in 2015.
He was labelled a “rat” and a “snitch,” and what resulted was his own brutal killing, first formulated as a revenge plot to kidnap him, according to Crown prosecutors laying out the evidence Tuesday at the start of the gangland murder trial.
Nedeljko Borozan, the man accused of supplying the guns and loading the alleged murder weapon, and Mohamed Mohamed, the alleged triggerman who the Crown contends shot Najdi twice in the back as he ran for his life, have both pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
The Crown alleges that on the evening of Jan. 10, 2016, seven men, including Borozan and Mohamed, formed a plot to kidnap Najdi, 28, and that nearly everyone, including Najdi, was part of a criminal subculture.
“At its core, this trial is about the brutal killing of a drug dealer,” prosecutor Julien Lalande told the jury.
The men met at a Vanier apartment, obtained a car, gathered guns and concocted a ruse, and one of the group would lure Najdi on the pretence of a drug deal, he said. At 10:30 p.m. on the Sunday night, Najdi was in a parking lot in the city’s east end — in a Mazda 3 with his friend, Amirali Mohsen, and a third man who served as bait — when he realized it was a setup, Lalande said. By then it was too late. An SUV was pulling up behind the car. In it were five of the co-conspirators, some masked and most armed with guns, Lalande said.
Najdi took off running after one of them tried to swing him from his gold chains, which broke off his neck, freeing him. Lalande told the jury of nine men and three women it will hear evidence that it was Mohamed who raised his gun and fired two bullets, both of which hit Najdi. One embedded in his hip bone, while the other travelled through his rib cage and punctured a lung before lodging in his clavicle.
Najdi fled to a nearby housing co-op on Claremont Drive just off of St. Laurent Boulevard where he banged on doors asking for help. A neighbour phoned 911.
Court heard that one of the two officers responding first recognized Najdi, who was seated on a step in a pool of his own blood before he became frantic, rolling from side to side on the ground, saying he couldn’t breathe. He lost consciousness and never regained it. Najdi was pronounced dead in hospital.
Lalande told court that Borozan and Mohamed hopped in the Mazda after the shooting. Both vehicles drove together to dispose of the guns, and then the group went back to Vanier, invaded Najdi’s home and robbed it while they confined his girlfriend, Lalande said.
The lawyer told the jury they will hear the police evidence from witnesses, forensics, cellphones and video footage. He said they will also hear testimony from two eyewitnesses: Mohsen, who was bound and kidnapped before being dumped at King Edward Avenue and Sussex Drive with a message for Najdi’s brother that he was next, and their star witness, who will testify under a publication ban protecting his identity.
The trial is expected to last six weeks. It resumes today.