Ottawa man guilty of first-degree murder for killing his wife in brutal attack
Hamid Ayoub was found guilty of stabbing his wife Hanadi Mohamed and the attempted murder of his daughter in a 2021 attack.
A jury has convicted Hamid Ayoub of first-degree murder in the death of his estranged wife, Hanadi Mohamed, and of attempting to murder their daughter, who tried to intervene during the violent 2021 attack.
The verdict, delivered by a jury of nine women and three men, was reached Tuesday morning after a full day of deliberation. Superior Court Justice Kevin Phillips had given the jurors their final instructions the previous day.
There was no contest during the trial regarding Ayoub's violent nature. Both sides acknowledged he was an "angry, hurtful, abusive man" who had killed his estranged wife and stabbed their daughter on June 15, 2021.
Ayoub’s defense lawyers agreed that he should be convicted of murder but sought a verdict of second-degree murder and aggravated assault. However, the jury sided with the prosecution, finding Ayoub guilty of first-degree murder and attempted murder.
At 63, Ayoub now faces a life sentence for first-degree murder, with no chance of parole for 25 years. Justice Phillips also imposed a concurrent 25-year parole ineligibility for the attempted murder charge.
Ayoub’s defense was led by Omar About El Hassan and Leo Russomanno. At the start of his trial on September 16, Ayoub pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of second-degree murder and aggravated assault, but this plea was rejected by Crown attorneys Louise Tansey and Cecilia Bouzane.
Prosecutors argued that the evidence supported a first-degree murder conviction, with Tansey explaining in her closing statement that the jury could reach this conclusion through two pathways: planning and deliberation, or through "watching and besetting," a form of criminal harassment that also meets the criteria for first-degree murder.
Ayoub had placed a tracking device on his son's car and monitored his estranged wife’s movements for months leading up to her murder.
Mohamed had endured 14 years of abuse from Ayoub, who had “dominated and demeaned her” before she left him nine months before her death. She was stabbed 39 times in broad daylight outside her Baseline Road apartment, and their daughter was stabbed 12 times while trying to defend her mother.
