Jury in Ager Hasan murder trial begins deliberations in Kitchener

Hasan, 30, on trial for killing his ex-girlfriend, Melinda Vasilije

The fate of Ager Hasan is now in the hands of the jury.

Deliberations began Wednesday afternoon. A verdict had not been reached by press time.

Hasan, 30, of Hamilton is charged with second-degree murder in the killing of his ex-girlfriend, Melinda Vasilije, 22.

He stabbed her 47 times on April 28, 2017, in her apartment on Country Hill Drive near Block Line Road in Kitchener, less than a month after she ended the relationship.

Vasilije agreed to meet Hasan so he could get “closure,” Crown prosecutor Brendan Thomas said in an opening statement to the jury.

Hasan testified they reconciled that night. But he said that when he told Vasilije he cheated on her when they were dating, she attacked him with a knife. He said he then grabbed a knife.

Hasan testified he recalls stabbing her only twice — in the face and shoulder — before blacking out. He said he did not intend to kill her.

“I swear to God I had no control over it,” Hasan testified. “I swear to God I blacked out. The whole thing I did is (expletive) up … but don’t ever try and say I did this in the right mindset because I swear to God I blacked out.

“I didn’t do this out of anger.” Hasan had injuries to his hands. After killing Vasilije, Hasan sent her a text: “Nice seeing you tonight. Glad we worked things out. See you soon.”

The location of many of the stab wounds — 27 in the neck, six in the chest — suggests he intended to kill Vasilije and did not lose control, prosecutor Ashley Warne told the jury.

The Crown previously rejected Hasan’s guilty plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

“Ager Hasan was an obsessed, jealous ex-boyfriend who refused to accept the end of the relationship,” Warne told the jury.

“He suspected that Melinda had moved on with someone else and for that reason she was disloyal. This is what caused Ager Hasan to kill Melinda Vasilije.”

Hasan intended to kill her and should be found guilty of second-degree murder, Warne said.

Hasan also bit Vasilije on the hand, defence lawyer Scott Reid told jurors. “That is a man out of control in a frenzy,” he said.

Reid said Hasan was provoked and should be found not guilty of murder but guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Provocation is “not a licence to kill with impunity,” Reid said. “Provocation is about loss of control.”

The prosecutor said the end of the relationship “filled him with rage.”

The Crown may say 47 stab wounds “sounds like rage,” Reid said. “That’s not rage. That’s loss of control.” Hasan lost control and “acted in the heat of the moment,” Reid said.

Warne read several texts Vasilije sent Hasan in the weeks leading up to the killing.

“I’ve made up my mind and I can’t turn back now,” she wrote 25 days before she was killed.

She later wrote, “You honestly need to let me go.”

Warne said the jury should reject Hasan’s version of how the killing transpired.

“Ager Hasan was not stabbed,” Warne said. “Ager Hasan was the only aggressor that night.”

When the blade of one knife got bent, Hasan used another knife to continue the attack, Warne said.

She said he wasn’t provoked. Hasan recalls details of the night of the killing “except the most important part” — the other 45 stab wounds, Warne said.

“You should not believe him when he says he blacked out.”

Hasan often lied to Vasilije and never disclosed his cheating before, she said. “So ask yourself: Why would he do it now? It defies common sense because it did not happen.”

Vasilije was described by her sister, Christina, as a “selfless, giving person.”

Reid asked jurors to put themselves in Hasan’s shoes. Hasan came to Canada from “war-torn Iraq,” Reid said. He was attacked by a group when he was 14. One of the assailants had a metal pipe. He had nightmares and worried he would be attacked again.

Hasan said he was good friends with Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, a Canadian Army reserve soldier shot to death in 2014 while on ceremonial sentry duty at the National War Memorial in Ottawa.

He said another friend killed himself by jumping off a ferry into Lake Ontario.

Hasan had mental health issues while dating Vasilije, Reid

‘‘ Ager Hasan was not stabbed. Ager Hasan was the only aggressor that night. ASHLEY WARNE PROSECUTOR

said. He spent a lot of time in his room alone.

Just before she ended the relationship, Reid said, Hasan texted her to say he had a dream about her “trying to hurt me.”

After killing Vasilije, Hasan fled to the United States.

He seemed obsessed with the notion that Vasilije had cheated on him. While he was on the run, Hasan wrote an email to a Waterloo Regional Police detective.

“My first question is, Did Melinda ever sleep with anyone else in the course of our relationship (cheat) or not?” Hasan wrote on June 18, 2017.

“After we broke up on April 3, did Melinda ever go on a date between then and April 28? Also, did she ever sleep with anyone during the course of that time?”

Hasan said in the email he would turn himself in if police answered the questions.

The U.S. Secret Service arrested him, on July 11, 2017, more than two months after the killing, in San Antonio, Texas, on a tip that he might have been involved in counterfeit money.

It took more than five months to extradite Hasan back to Canada. He was denied bail.

“Ager Hasan’s failure to turn himself in to police is irrelevant with respect to whether the Crown has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Ager Hasan committed murder rather than manslaughter,” Justice Gerry Taylor instructed the jury.