DATE: 20060221

DOCKET: C43724

COURT OF APPEAL FOR ONTARIO

RE:

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN (Respondent) –and- AYENEW ABEBE and GETAHUN ANTENEH (Appellants)

BEFORE:

LASKIN, SIMMONS AND LAFORME JJ.A.

COUNSEL:

Aliamisse O. Mundulai

for the appellants

Tracy Stapleton

for the respondent

HEARD & ENDORSED:

February 20, 2006

On appeal from conviction and sentence entered on June 16, 2005 by Justice Derek T. Hogg of the Ontario Court of Justice.

A P P E A L B O O K E N D O R S E M E N T

[1] We called on the Crown solely on the issue whether the trial judge misapprehended the evidence of the police officer and the evidence of the appellant Abebe. Even assuming that the trial judge did misapprehend the police officer’s identification testimony, and Abebe’s evidence concerning her claim, we are satisfied that the verdicts would have inevitably been the same. The bystander’s evidence cogently supported the convictions, and the appellants’ testimony strained credulity.

[2] We found no merit in the other grounds of appeal against conviction. The evidence was capable of reasonably supporting the verdicts. The character evidence in support of the appellant Anteneh was not so compelling that the trial judge erred in failing to refer to it.

[3] Finally, the appellants’ trial counsel twice told the trial judge that an interpreter was not needed. The record does not suggest that the appellants had any difficulty answering the question asked of them.

[4] The conviction appeals are therefore dismissed.

[5] The intermittent sentences imposed by the trial judge were not unreasonable. The sentence appeals are therefore dismissed.