Jury begins deliberations in Ayoub trial

The fate of an Ottawa man who admitted to murdering his estranged wife and stabbing his daughter in broad daylight in 2021 is now in the hands of a jury.

The fact is not disputed that Hamid Ayoub intended to kill his estranged wife Hanadi Mohamed when he stabbed her 39 times outside her Baseline Road home before stabbing their daughter who was coming to her mother's aid. What a jury will have to decide is whether it amounts to first-degree murder and attempted murder.

Over the course of the trial, court heard Ayoub stabbed Mohamed when she was returning from getting groceries with their daughter on June 15, 2021. When their daughter tried to intervene to help save her mother, Ayoub stabbed his daughter 12 times. The stabbing only stopped when she played dead, the jury heard.

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At the start of the trial Ayoub pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and aggravated assault—a plea to lesser charges rejected by the Crown. He pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and attempted murder and the trial proceeded as planned.

The Crown argues the killing was planned and deliberate. Ayoub's defence lawyers did not call any evidence during trial and said the murder was an impulsive act, "not the product of a calculated scheme put into action and deliberated upon." They argue Ayoub should be found guilty of the lesser charge of second-degree murder.

The jury heard evidence Ayoub planted a Tile tracker on a vehicle used by his children. During closing arguments on Oct. 3, assistant Crown attorney Louise Tansey told the jury the tracker was one of the "tools Mr. Ayoub uses to carry out his plan to murder. The knife is the murder weapon. The [tracking device] is the beacon that led Mr. Ayoub right to his victims."

Court heard Ayoub set the tracker to "lost" in order to receive a notification about its location. He did that dozens of times including on the day of the attacks.

Tansey said about 20 minutes after Ayoub received a notification from the tracker with its location on June 15, 2021, he parked his vehicle in a side lot of a Circle K parking lot out of sight of the home and approached his estranged wife and daughter "armed to kill… with a diabolical purpose." He was carrying a knife and wore a hat, glasses and a facemask covering his mouth and nose, Tansey said.

Leo Russomanno, one of Ayoub's lawyers, argued the murder was not committed as part of an ongoing campaign of criminal harassment—another possible way the Crown says the jury could convict Ayoub of first-degree murder.

"Hamid Ayoub was in a frenzy of explosive rage that clouded rational thought. He acted impulsively because of this rage and did not take the time to deliberate," Russomanno told the jury during closing arguments.

Court heard Ayoub changed his clothes and had a bag in his vehicle that included thousands of dollars in Canadian and American currency, an expired passport, identification, credit cards and medicine. Russomanno said Ayoub used the bag for school and that "no one is going anywhere with an expired passport and half a smoked joint in their bag."

Ayoub was arrested at the Ottawa Hospital after seeking treatment for a cut to his hand. A forensic identification officer testified at trial about bloody clothing recovered from garbage cans at the hospital.

Over the course of the trial, the jury heard about years of abuse that lead to 9-1-1 being called on multiple occasions.

Ayoub's lawyer told the jury it has to put any biases aside and keep an open mind, assessing the facts objectively without relying on sympathy.

In his charge to the jury on Monday—instructions explaining the law and summarizing the case, Superior Court Justice Kevin Phillips told jurors in order to find Ayoub guilty of first-degree murder and attempted murder they must all be convinced the Crown proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Phillips told the jury Ayoub was "not on trial for his character or propensities."

The jury can find Ayoub guilty of first-degree murder, guilty of second-degree murder, guilty of manslaughter or not guilty.

On the charge of attempted murder, the jury can find Ayoub guilty of attempted murder, guilty of aggravated assault or not guilty.