CANADA • Aminat MAGOMADOVA, 14 / Accused: Aset Magomadova (mother) ~ Calgary AB

Aset Magomadova, 39, left, killed her daughter Aminat, 14, on Feb. 26, 2007.


New trial ordered for mother who strangled daughter
May 11, 2011

CALGARY — The province’s highest court has ordered a new trial on second-degree murder for a Calgary mother who strangled her 14-year-old daughter with a head scarf at their northeast home four years ago.

Alberta Court of Appeal Justices Peter Martin, Ellen Picard and Patricia Rowbotham were unanimous that the trial judge erred in law when he acquitted Aset Magomadova of second-degree murder in the death of Aminat on Feb. 26, 2007, and convicted her of manslaughter.


Aset Magomadova was convicted of manslaughter
in the death of her daughter Aminat.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Sal LoVecchio, after his verdict last July, then suspended the sentence of Magomadova, 41, and placed her on probation for three years with conditions including counselling.

Trial Crown prosecutors Mac Vomberg and Sarah Bhola, who had sought a murder conviction, later argued for 12 years in prison on manslaughter.

The decision to not send the mother, a refugee from wartorn Chechnya where her husband was killed, prompted outrage among victims’ groups in Canada.

The suspended sentence also sparked much debate and controversy, with the vast majority of readers on the Herald’s website highly critical of the decision not to send the woman to jail.

Crown prosecutor Goran Tomljanovic made it clear from his argument that he did not believe it was an unjust verdict, but that the judge made findings of fact then did not properly apply the law to the facts.

“There’s no question this was a 14-year-old girl who was out of control, violent, destructive and provocative to those in authority, was abusing drugs and into prostitution,” Tomljanovic told the three-judge panel.

“The victim and the accused had a history of conflict that stretched over many months. There is no issue that the accused killed her daughter or how she did it: she strangled her with a scarf.”

However, Tomljanovic said the forensic pathologist’s evidence clearly showed a victim would lose consciousness in some 15 to 30 seconds and there must be a minimum two to five minutes of constant pressure to cause the death.

Having ruled out self-defence by Magomadova, who testified her daughter had come at her with a large knife in the sewing room, Tomljanovic said there is no explanation why she would continue to apply pressure to the scarf for such a long time after the girl was unconscious, unless she intended to kill the teen or at least cause bodily harm that could lead to death and was reckless.

“The trial judge weighed all of the evidence, rejected the knife argument, and said there was no self-defence or related defence succeeded,” said the prosecutor.

“He said, ‘I find it as a fact the victim was strangled for at least 2 minutes.’ That is the primary piece of evidence the Crown relies on that the trial judge applied the wrong test.”

However, defence lawyer Alain Hepner argued the judge erred in rejecting his client’s contention she had been attacked by her knife-wielding daughter and was defending herself.

He also said LoVecchio’s ruling that there was not a specific intent to kill, required to convict on a charge of murder, was a finding of fact that is not a ground of appeal.

“I believe Justice LoVecchio had all these issues on his mind when he made his ruling,” argued Hepner.

“He says we have to look at the whole constellation of factors and emotions in the history of the mother and daughter, that shows she didn’t appreciate her actions at the time. Her testimony was that she was reacting to her daughter’s aggression.”

Court heard during trial that Aset Magomadova, a refugee from Chechnya, came to Canada in 2003 with her daughter and wheelchair-bound teenage son, who has a rare form of muscular dystrophy.

Her husband had been killed in the war by Russian soldiers in 1995 and she later spent six months in jail in Chechnya after having part of her foot blown off.

On that fateful morning four years ago, Aminat refused to go to court to deal with sentencing for assaulting a school teacher, and an argument ensued.

The devout Muslim mother testified Aminat had attacked her with a knife.

She told court she reacted by wrapping the scarf around her neck and twice told the girl to put the knife down before she lost consciousness, then stopped immediately.

Police later found a knife in the room, but it did not have the daughter’s fingerprints on it.

LoVecchio had said jail was not necessary to meet the ends of justice.

“At first blush (a suspended sentence) may sound like a get-out-of-jail-free card. It is not,” said the judge in his ruling.

“The court has said the act in question does not merit a period of incarceration. What the court has done is reserved or ... ‘suspended’ judgment on that point for a period of time on conditions. If the conditions are satisfied, then the individual will not be sentenced. If they are breached, the individual will be brought back to the court to be dealt with further.”

The case will now be sent back to Court of Queen’s Bench to set a date for the new trial.

http://www.globaltvcalgary.com/trial+ordered+mother+strangled+daughter/4766628/story.html

Battle over killer's retrial
September 16, 2011


Aset Magomadova

The Crown will not cave to murder suspect Aset Magomadova’s wish for her retrial to be before a jury, a prosecutor said Friday.

Crown lawyer Gary Cornfield said the prosecution won’t consent to Magomadova having a second trial before 12 Calgarians, instead of a judge sitting alone.

Cornfield told Justice Beth Hughes the Court of Appeal ordered a retrial in Magomadova’s case and it should be in the same form as her first hearing.

“The Crown’s view is that it’s returned as a judge alone trial,” he said.

“The Crown is not prepared to consent to the re-election to a judge and jury.”

Defence counsel Alain Hepner, who was not Magomadova’s lawyer for her first hearing, indicated he wants the second trial to be heard by a jury.

Hepner said he will make an application to have a Court of Queen’s Bench judge order the Crown to accede to his client’s wishes.

“We’ll have to fight it out,” he told Hughes.

Magomadova, 41, is charged with second-degree murder in the Feb. 26, 2007, strangulation of her 14-year-old daughter, Aminat.

In her first trial, Justice Sal LoVecchio ruled Magomadova hadn’t intended the out-of-control teen’s death, but wasn’t acting in self-defence, as she had claimed.

As a result, LoVecchio convicted her of manslaughter and handed her a suspended sentence and probation of three years.

At her first trial, the Chechen native admitted wrapping a scarf around her unruly daughter’s neck and choking her, but only after the girl came at her with a knife.

After moving to Canada from her war-torn homeland, Aminat became sexually promiscuous and got into trouble with the law, much to her mother’s consternation.

In May, the Alberta Court of Appeal agreed with the Crown that LoVecchio erred in his decision and ordered Magomadova to stand trial a second time for murder.

Magomadova’s re-trial is scheduled to run from May 22 to June 29 next year.

She remains at liberty on bail pending the outcome of the case and was not present in court for Cornfield and Hepner’s comments.

http://www.calgarysun.com/2011/09/16/battle-over-killers-retrial

Mother accused of killing daughter won't seek retrial jury
November 05, 2011

The lawyer for a Calgary mother who faces a new trial on seconddegree murder in the strangling of her rebellious teenage daughter in 2007 will no longer attempt to have a jury for the retrial.

Alain Hepner told Court of Queen's Bench Chief Justice Neil Wittmann on Friday he has abandoned the application on behalf of Aset Magomadova, 41, for the six-week trial, expected to start May 22.

Magomadova faced the murder charge at her first trial before a judge last year, but was convicted of a lesser charge of manslaughter in the death of her daughter Aminat, 14, and had her sentence suspended for two years with probation.

The Alberta Court of Appeal overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial, with the original murder charge reinstated.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Mother+accused+killing+daughter+seek+retrial+jury/5662677/story.html