Accused killer believed ex-wife had lesbian affair: Crown

(April 12, 2011,Toronto Sun)--An Ethiopian immigrant believed his estranged wife was having a lesbian affair so he killed her to protect his son, his murder trial heard Tuesday.

Richards quoted Kassim telling his female family friend Ayan Mahdi that he shot Ali and then ran off with their two-year-old son, Sammy, on May 14, 2005.

“I did it for my child so that his mind will not be spoiled,” Kassim told Mahdi in an intercepted phone call. Kassim admitted hitting Ali and feared gettting into trouble for the abuse before he fatally shot her in the living room of her home, court heard.

Richards said Kassim “didn’t shoot Ali four times in the head on sudden impulse,” insisting he weighed his options and decided to kill her. Richards said the prosecution has proved its case “beyond any reasonable doubt.”

In her closing to the jury, Crown attorney Beveley Richards said Amin Kassim "believed" his wife, Muluka Ali, was having an affair with a women in her church St. apartment building.

Kassim, 36, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder of Ali, 23, and the attempted murder of Marcello Joseph Mossa, 61, a cabbie who transported him from the downtown murder scene to a secluded industrial area near  Black Creek Dr. and  Weston Rd.

Court-appointed lawyer Richard Litkowski argued the prosecution hasn’t proved that Kassim “planned and deliberated” murdering his wife.

“Motive is not the same as planning and deliberation. It may help explain why he did it, but it doesn’t prove that he planned it earlier,” Litkowski told the jury. Kassim left the crime scene intact and never attempted to clean it up, noted Litkowski.

Source: Toronto Sun

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