Osman found guilty of premeditated murder in 2022

Article content

A jury has found 20-year-old Mohamed Osman guilty of the premeditated murder of 18-year-old Marcus Maloney in 2022.

Prosecutors successfully argued that Osman was the instigator of the “chaos” that erupted after a fight broke out between two groups of young men at St. Laurent Mall in east Ottawa on the afternoon of September 16, 2022.

The deceased's family and supporters wept as the guilty verdicts were read out in a packed courtroom.

Article content

The 12-member jury was tasked with deciding whether Osman was guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter. The criminal code states that second-degree murder is a killing that is not planned but is intentional, while manslaughter is the death of another person that is neither planned nor intentional but is the result of the defendant's actions.

Intentional murder is punishable by life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after a maximum of 25 years.

The jury was instructed to consider whether Osman acted in self-defence when he believed his friend was in immediate danger during a fight between two groups of young men.

Jurors were shown a video of the altercation in which the defense made a number of admissions. Among other things, they were told that Osman was the one seen on the video, wearing a red “Playboy” hoodie, brandishing the knife and stabbing Maloney and his two friends. He also admitted that he was seen on another video leaving the mall shortly after the stabbing and throwing the knife into a trash compactor, where it was later found by police.

Maloney died from his injuries from the stabbing. Osman plunged the knife three inches into Maloney's chest, penetrating the 18-year-old's chest cavity at the base of his neck, severing a major artery and piercing his left lung.

Article content

In his closing argument, prosecutor John Semenoff said Osman escalated the altercation when he ran into a Dollarama store, stole a kitchen knife, hid it on his hip, scurried past a security guard and ran back into the mall, where he almost immediately began stabbing Maloney, plunging the knife “full depth” into Maloney's chest, near his neck.

The jury also found Osman guilty of two counts of grievous bodily harm. Jacob Grant-Dallaire and Denis Plumb, who were both 20 years old at the time of the fight.

Osman, now 20, was 18 at the time of the fight and At the start of his trial before a jury last week, he pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of grievous bodily harm, but admitted stabbing the three men.

More to follow …

Share this article on your social network