Trial begins for youth accused of planning fatal attack on Halifax teen

HALIFAX — The violent death of a 16-year-old Halifax boy was brought into stark relief Monday as a Crown lawyer presented exhibits to a youth court, including some of the victim’s bloody clothing.

The disturbing evidence, which also included a number of knives, was added to the court record as the trial started for one of two youths charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death last year of Ahmad Maher Al Marrach.

The Grade 10 student, a well-liked pupil at Citadel High School in Halifax, was found badly injured in a parking garage near the Halifax Shopping Centre on April 22, 2024. He died later in hospital from a stab wound in the centre of his chest.

Al Marrach arrived in Canada with his family several years ago after escaping the war in Syria. His parents watched Monday’s proceedings from the public gallery, where an Arabic translator quietly explained what was being said.

The 17-year-old accused — the first of the two youths to stand trial — sat a few metres away with his defence lawyers on one side and two sheriff’s deputies on the other.

The name of the accused and any details that could be used to identify him are protected from publication under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

In her opening statement before Judge Elizabeth Buckle, Crown attorney Sarah Kirby said the defence and the Crown agree that the accused in this trial was not the one who fatally stabbed Al Marrach during a group attack on the boy. However, Kirby said the 17-year-old helped plan the assault and knew it could lead to Al Marrach’s death.

The Crown lawyer said the accused and Al Marrach had exchanged angry texts about a girlfriend that ended with the two agreeing to meet for a fight at the parkade in the city’s west end.

“By the early evening, Ahmad was dead, having been stabbed in the chest with a knife,” Kirby said, adding that he had been kicked in the head several times as the four teens beat him. “The evidence will show (the accused) planned the group assault, and he knew that the death of Ahmad was the likely result.”

In October, a 14-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy pleaded guilty to manslaughter, saying they were unaware of the plans made by the other teens. They will be sentenced later this year. A 15-year-old boy is scheduled to stand trial for second-degree murder next month.

All of the teens were armed with knives, except for Al Marrach, Kirby told the court.

In response, defence lawyer Anna Mancini said few of the facts in the case are in dispute, but she said the evidence will show her client was “not a party to the offence of murder.” She argued her client did not intend to cause death or bodily harm that would likely lead to death.

The defence lawyer said the four-minute beating and killing were captured on high-quality video footage. Those images, she stressed, will show that her client had no intention of causing death. She asked the judge to pay particular attention to where the accused was at the time of the stabbing. “The video will play a key role,” she said.

The remainder of the court hearing Monday was devoted to cataloguing almost 70 exhibits and hearing from the police officer who arrested the 17-year-old accused on a city bus less than 20 minutes after the alleged offence.

Halifax Regional Police Const. Sym Dewar told the court that when he apprehended the youth, a large knife inside a sheath fell from his clothing as he left the bus.

Meanwhile, Det.-Const. Shawn Flynn told the court that on the day of the stabbing he went to the trauma unit at the QE2 Health Sciences Centre in Halifax to collect evidence, including Al Marrach’s clothing and cellphone. During Monday’s hearing, the clothing was presented behind transparent display panels.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 6, 2025.

Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press