Man who conspired to kill Crown witness in murder trial gets nine years
Credit to Author: Keith Fraser| Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2019 00:01:38 +0000
A young man who conspired to kill a Crown witness who was scheduled to testify at his murder trial has been sentenced to nine years in prison.
Kiir Chol, 22, was convicted in September of one count of conspiracy to commit the murder of a witness, who can only be identified by the initials K.D. due to a publication ban.
At the time of the offence in November and December 2016, Chol was being held at North Fraser Pre-Trial Centre awaiting his trial on charges that he murdered a man named Aladdin Ramadan, 24, in Burnaby on Sept. 24, 2014.
In a series of conversations with a teen named Tresor Kimwemwe, Chol encouraged Kimwemwe to go to the East Vancouver home of K.D. to shoot him, or if K.D. was not present, shoot a member of his family.
The purpose of the conspiracy was to eliminate K.D. as a witness at Chol’s upcoming second-degree murder trial.
On Dec. 20, 2016, Kimwemwe went to K.D.’s home and when K.D.’s mother, H.J., answered the door and told him that K.D. was not home, he shot her three times, leaving her partially paralysed and having to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life.
Despite the attack on his mother, K.D. testified at Chol’s trial, which ended with Chol being convicted by a jury of the lesser offence of manslaughter and possession of a loaded restricted firearm. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In June, Kimwemwe, who was 16 at the time of his offence but was raised to adult court for sentencing, received an 11-year jail term for the attempted murder of H.J. and another attempted murder involving a shooting at a townhouse in Burnaby in November 2016.
Chol was just shy of 17 at the time of the shooting of Ramadan and was raised to adult court for sentencing. He is originally from the Sudan and came to Canada with his family at a young age. The family made a refugee claim when they arrived in Canada.
The accused, who tested low on an I.Q. test, has a youth record including convictions for assault, assault of a peace officer and aggravated assault.
In sentencing Chol on Thursday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Michael Tammen said the aggravating factors in the murder conspiracy included the fact that there was an actual shooting, indeed an attempt to murder an innocent victim.
“Two, the primary target of the planned shooting was a justice system participant. K.D. was an important witness in Chol’s upcoming murder trial. The plan involved an attack on the justice system.”
Also aggravating was the “life-altering, debilitating” injuries to H.J. and the fact that her children now have to care for her daily, said the judge.
“The only real mitigating factor is Chol’s youth. There is also a belated expression of remorse noted in the pre-sentence reports and a partial acceptance of responsibility for his actions. That appears to be all that Chol is capable of.”
The judge said Chol lacked insight into his crime and self-awareness and clearly needs extensive programming in prison designed to help him understand the impact of his criminal acts on others.
Were it not for Chol’s young age, the judge said he would have imposed a sentence at the high end of the range of eight to 12 years in prison for murder conspiracy offences.
The judge declined an application by the Crown to have Chol serve half his sentence before he can apply for parole but ordered that the nine-year sentence run consecutively to his 10-year sentence for the manslaughter conviction.
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