Warning: This story contains sensitive and graphic content that may be disturbing to some readers.
Carland Walker stood in a Toronto courtroom Thursday, with his back three of Nabila Aminzadah’s sisters who were sitting in the gallery and apologized to the family of his girlfriend.
On Oct. 23, a jury found Walker guilty of first-degree murder rejecting his defence that he never meant to kill his girlfriend. Walker tried to plead guilty to manslaughter at the beginning of the trial but the Crown rejected that plea.
In his elocution to the court, Walker told Justice Michael Brown that Aminzadah never deserved the abuse he put her through and reiterated what he said on the witness stand which the jury didn’t believe. “I didn’t want Nabila to die. I truly loved hurt. When I hurt her, it wasn’t love. She’s not here and it’s my fault,” said Walker.
“I am no saint and I’m the furthest thing from the hero, but I didn’t want Nabila to die. I didn’t deserve her or any of her kindness,” he added.
It was just after 3 a.m. on Nov. 12, 2021, when police were called to the basement apartment on Ellesmere Rd. near Morningside Rd. where Walker lived with his brother.
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According to evidence heard in court, when paramedics arrived, the 36-year-old was lying on her back in Walker’s bedroom with bruising on her body, a swollen face, her eyes swollen shut, with marks all over her body including scars and bleeding. They also found a broken broomstick, HDMI cable, and two darts along with packing tape with hair and blood on it.
Aminzadah was rushed to hospital where she was pronounced dead. Her cause of death was determined to be multiple blunt force and sharp force injuries.
In her sentencing submissions, assistant Crown attorney Beverley Olesko told Justice Brown that Walker used packing tape to bind her hands and legs and around her head, to prevent her from making any sound.
“To be beaten in the way she was was akin to torture,” Olesko said.
“He used a broomstick that he broke while beating her and used an HDMI cable to whip her. The entire event took place in the bedroom while she was confined. The level of violence was nearly unthinkable. The way the injuries were imposed were cruel and deeply dehumanizing to be whipped and bitten,” Oleska added, telling the judge at minimum there were 256 individual strikes to Aminzadah.
Olesko said another aggravating factor was that it was intimate partner violence. She also spoke about the ripple effect of this horrific crime on first responders, nurses, Walker’s brother who was asked to call 911 and Aminzadah’s family.
“She was bound and gagged during the killing. We can’t imagine the sheer terror she would have felt not being able to escape her attacker.”
Olesko said there was an escalation in his long history of abuse during their two-year relationship. Furthermore, Olesko told the judge Walker was on bail at the time for assault with a weapon. That assault did not involve Aminzadah, she said. The jury never heard about that outstanding charge.
The statutory sentence for first-degree murder is life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 25 years.
The Crown explained that three of Aminzadah’s sisters who were in court Thursday and attended the entire trial, planning to file victim impact statements. Olesko said upon further reflection, they decided not to file because they didn’t want to share their pain with the public at large and they wanted to “close the chapter.”
She added, “I don’t think the court needs a victim impact statement to know how loved she was.”
Justice Brown will deliver his sentence on Dec. 13.
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