HALIFAX — A Halifax-area youth has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death last year of a 16-year-old high school student who was stabbed in a parking garage.
The 15-year-old accused, who was supposed to stand trial next month, entered the plea Friday in Halifax youth court after an agreed statement of facts was read into the record about the death of Grade 10 student Ahmad Maher Al Marrach.
Court heard that on April 22, the killer and three other teens met at a downtown Halifax shopping mall where the accused stole a large kitchen knife from a discount store in anticipation of joining a planned fight involving Al Marrach.
The group then took a bus to a parkade near the Halifax Shopping Centre in the city's west end, where one of the teens — a 17-year-old boy — had agreed via text message to fight Al Marrach "one-on-one" with no weapons, the statement of facts says.
"All four were armed with knives when they arrived at the bus terminal and walked to parkade," the statement says.
The fight started as planned with Al Marrach, who was unarmed, fighting the 17-year-old, but at one point all four teens joined in attacking the victim.
"During the ensuing commotion, (a 14-year-old girl) fell to the ground and (the accused) stepped towards Ahmad, lifted his right hand up above his shoulder and plunged his large knife into the centre of Ahmad's chest," the court document says. Al Marrach was pronounced dead in hospital.
The statement of facts says the accused "caused the death of Ahmad and he did mean to cause Ahmad bodily harm that he knew was likely to cause his death."
The identity of the accused is protected from publication under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, and during Friday's hearing the Crown withdrew its motion to have him sentenced as an adult. He will be sentenced June 9.
Al Marrach was a well-liked student at Citadel High School in Halifax. He arrived in Canada with his parents and six siblings in 2016 after escaping the war in Syria.
All four teens who took part in the attack were originally charged with second-degree murder. Two of them, a 17-year-old boy and the 14-year-old girl, pleaded guilty in October to the lesser charge of manslaughter. The pair admitted that they knew they would be part of a group assault that could cause serious harm, but the Crown and defence agreed they did not take part in the stabbing.
The girl, who told court she was in a relationship with the killer, is expected to be sentenced March 14; the boy’s sentencing is set for March 31.
During a sentencing hearing for the pair last week, Al Marrach's mother delivered a heart-wrenching statement to a silent courtroom, saying her life has lost all meaning since her son's death.
Basima Al Jaji, speaking through an Arabic interpreter, said she is still waiting for her son to walk through the front door of the family's Halifax home, and she described how she is still hoping to wake up from a bad dream.
“Ahmad has died, but I died with him," she said as she read from her victim impact statement. “Life has no taste or colour since Ahmad passed away …. Happiness was stolen from (our) house.”
The second-degree murder trial for another 17-year-old boy started on Jan. 6 and is expected to resume on April 4 and wrap up in May. In that case, the Crown and defence agree the accused was not the one who fatally stabbed Al Marrach, but the Crown has argued that he helped plan the assault and knew it could lead to Al Marrach’s death.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 31, 2025.
Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press
