OTTAWA-Amid tight security in a tense, emotion-packed Ottawa courtroom Wednesday, a jury delivered a stunning victory to the six men accused in the “Midway” murder trial.
A jubilant Wahab Dadshani, who defended himself throughout the trial on charges of first-degree murder, shouted at the departing jury: “God bless you all. Thank you very much.”
Dadshani was found guilty of the significantly lesser charge of manslaughter — the only defendant found guilty.
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Dadshani’s elder brother Tawab, 33, Mohamed Abed, 25, Tarik Echrif, 28, Shaun Hulbert, 25, and Fahim Payman, 30, were cleared of all charges.
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Wahab Dadshani admitted beating and slashing Chaar with a sword but denied intending to kill him. He was kept in custody and will be sentenced later.
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“I’m utterly shocked,” said lead prosecutor Robert Wadden, “that they could come to this verdict with the evidence they had in front of them. They arrived (at Midway) with carloads of weapons and chased the man.”
Wadden had characterized the Midway incident as a clash of rival drug dealers and their associates.
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Chaar, 26, was kicked, beaten and fatally wounded by the sword-wielding Wahab Dadshani at the end of a corridor inside the family fun centre, across from the Museum of Science and Technology.
He bled to death after suffering more than a dozen cuts, including a severed artery in his wrist and a 10-centimetre gash to his abdomen that caused his intestines to spill out. The middle, ring and pinky fingers of his right hand were also severed.
Dadshani, an admitted drug dealer, testified that he was lured to Midway by Chaar, who intended to kill him. He denied intending to kill Chaar.
“Mr. Chaar died from my actions, but I did not murder him,” Dadshani testified.
He also claimed throughout the trial that his five co-accused were innocent victims of wrongful prosecution and simply tried to defend him against the unexpected attack by Chaar and his armed associate Michael Estephan.
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Estephan fired a shower of bullets towards the Dadshani group, wounding Abed in the foot as he approached the Midway entrance.
Hulbert and Abed ran for cover in the parking lot and Payman remained in his Mercedes but the Dadshani brothers trailed by Echrif, carrying a sword, pursued Chaar into Midway.
(The gunman Estephan, the only witness in a position to potentially counter the Dadshani group’s version of events, was subsequently released on bail. He apparently fled Canada the day after his release).
When police arrived minutes after the attack, the 315-pound Chaar was bleeding to death next to a row of brightly coloured children’s arcade games but refused to tell an officer who had attacked him.
Ottawa police Sgt. Raymond Sabourin told the court during testimony that he tried to coax the 26-year-old into naming his attackers.
“He just shook his head from side to side. He wouldn’t say anything,” Sabourin said, describing how he spoke to Chaar as paramedics worked to save his life near a rear exit. “He was making comments that he was going to die.”
Dadshani, who defended himself after dismissing his lawyer early in the trial, admitted to assistant Crown prosecutor Robert Wadden that he trafficked in marijuana but claimed that Chaar was a feared local gang leader who dealt hard drugs such as crack cocaine, ecstasy and crystal meth.
“The incident at Midway was a fight between drug dealers. Correct?” asked Wadden.
“Well, if I was dealing drugs and he was, then you could say that,” replied Dadshani. “But I don’t characterize it that way… I wasn’t selling crack cocaine out of a children’s amusement centre or extorting money out of people.”
Much of the incident was caught by surveillance cameras outside and inside the Midway and that footage was a major part of the evidence for both prosecution and defence, who often had radically differing interpretations of what the images revealed.
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Echrif testified that he owned the “replica” sword because he was a collector and Wahab Dadshani testified that after the gunfire, he was in such a state of disorientation that when he grabbed the “replica” from Echrif said he didn’t know what it was he was grabbing.
Dadshani said he believed at the time that swinging what he called a dull “replica” sword at Chaar was the only way he could save his own life.
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“It was a potential massacre,” testified Dadshani. “He was trying to kill me. Mr. Chaar wanted me to go back outside and die. He said, ‘Go back outside and die.’ It was his turf and he unleashed hell on me. I lost it. I didn’t know where I was. All I could see was Mr. Chaar.”
“You remained focused on him until you had killed him,’ said Wadden. “Until he was stabbed, slashed and beaten and left for dead.”
“It’s not fair to say I left him for dead,” Dadshani responded.
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