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

[1] The 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.

[2] The 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.

[3] The 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.

[4] We 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.