Distracted driving did it, accused says
Man says striking person who’d beaten him earlier was a complete accident
Ayubullo Mohammad-Daud is blaming “inattention” as the reason he says he “accidentally” drove a stolen van onto a sidewalk, striking and killing a man who had beaten him in a street fight less than an hour earlier.
“I accidentally lost control ’cause I reached for a phone on the ground and (was) not paying attention,” MohammadDaud testified in front of a Superior Court jury Monday. “I had no idea that somebody got hit,” he said.
The 23-year-old has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the hit-and-run death of Steven Doyle, 27, who was riding a bike on George St., between Shuter and Gerrard Sts., on Aug. 15, 2016. On Monday, MohammadDaud called prosecutor Karen Simone a liar when she challenged his testimony that he returned to George St. to score heroin — not settle a score — despite a witness hearing him tell Doyle “I’ll be back” after the two got into an altercation.
“I don’t even know the person,” Mohammad-Daud said, adding it was “a very tragic day of my addiction to heroin, of wanting heroin.”
After he denied earlier meeting Doyle, Simone played surveillance footage of the two interacting on George St. an hour before he returned. Simone told MohammadDaud he was the one lying to the jury and said he stole the van with the intention of returning to George St., because he was “still angry that (he) lost the fight with Mr. Doyle.”
“I’m sorry that you’re lying,” he shot back. “I was the driver, I knew what happened that day. What happened was that I lost control, of mis-paying attention driving dangerously, and (the collision) accidentally, coincidentally happened.”
Mohammad-Daud told jurors that on his “life and heart” he did not kill Doyle intentionally — and would never lie about it.
In response, Simone confronted Mohammad-Dau d with his criminal record. On July 28, 2016, 17 days before he killed Doyle, MohammadDaud was behind the wheel of a stolen Mercedes in Mississauga when he deliberately tried to hit two construction workers after they confronted him about stealing property. Mohammad-Daud pleaded guilty earlier this year to two counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm.
The trial resumes Tuesday.