Court of Appeal for Ontario
Date: 2018-02-07 Docket: C64091 Judges: MacFarland, Pardu and Benotto JJ.A.
Between
Her Majesty the Queen Respondent
and
Mohamed Mahamud Appellant
Counsel
Ian Carter, for the appellant
Katie Doherty, for the respondent
Hearing and Release
Heard and released orally: January 31, 2018
On appeal from: The conviction entered on June 29, 2017 by Justice Peter D. Griffiths of the Ontario Court of Justice.
Reasons for Decision
1The appellant stands convicted of robbery and failing to remain at the scene of an accident. The charges arise out of a carjacking that occurred May 24, 2016 in Ottawa.
2The case turned on identity. The victim of the robbery testified that the appellant was not the man who attacked him when asked to identify the accused before the court. He testified in a somewhat confused and unconvincing manner that he had gone to high school with the appellant, that the night before the robbery he had been drinking heavily in a bar, a person he thinks might have been the appellant offered to drive him home and that the person in court was not his attacker on the night in question.
3The trial judge rejected his testimony finding it unreliable. He described his evidence as "hazy and uncertain". This was the trial judge's call. When he considered the video evidence together with the evidence of the Brown brothers, as well as the convincing DNA evidence, he was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt of the appellant's guilt.
4We see no error in his findings and we agree with him. The verdict is amply supported by the evidentiary record and the appeal is dismissed.
J. MacFarland J.A.
G. Pardu J.A.
M.L. Benotto J.A.