2 total
The accused was acquitted of second degree murder after successfully raising self-defence following an armed robbery.
The accused, Khalid Mohamed, was charged with second degree murder in the stabbing death of Steven Burns.
The facts were largely undisputed: Mohamed stabbed Burns, causing his death.
The central issue was whether Mohamed acted in self-defence or whether provocation would reduce the charge to manslaughter.
The court found that Mohamed had been robbed and assaulted by Burns and others, and that Mohamed stabbed Burns during a struggle for control of a knife.
The court concluded that the Crown had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Mohamed’s actions were unreasonable in the circumstances, and acquitted him of second degree murder.
The court admitted specific prior convictions of the victim to support the accused's self-defence claim.
The accused, Khalid Mohamed, facing a second-degree murder charge, brought a Scopelliti application seeking to introduce evidence of the victim's prior violent convictions to support a self-defence claim.
The Crown conceded the relevance of some convictions but opposed the entire record.
The court, applying principles from Scopelliti and Golov, found that certain convictions for assault with a weapon, break and enter, assault, and possession of property obtained by crime were probative and admissible, while others were not.
The application was granted in part.
