'Who hired you?': Crown suggests murder-for-hire in cross-exam of accused killer
CBC
"Who hired you?"
That question from prosecutor Hyatt Mograbee was one of her repeated suggestions that Michael Arnold shot two people as part of a murder-for-hire execution, targeting a man who'd recently been implicated in money laundering for organized crime.
But despite contradictions between Arnold's version of events and the Crown's audio and video evidence, the confessed killer stuck with his story that the shooting was a spur-of-the-moment decision made in a moment of panic during a failed carjacking,
Arnold, 36, is on trial for the first-degree of Nakita Baron and the attempted murder of her husband, Talal Fouani. The couple was shot as they backed out of their driveway in August 2022.
The Crown's theory is that Fouani, who had been recently charged with money laundering connected to organized crime, was the intended target and that Baron was eliminated to reduce the risk she could identify the shooter.
Arnold is an admitted career criminal from Edmonton.
He testified that on a trip to Calgary, he spotted Fouani's Bentley in the southwest suburban neighbourhood of Evergreen and ultimately made a decision to steal it.
Security video from the neighbourhood shows Arnold returned several times in July and August 2022 to Fouani's neighbourhood.
"You keep coming back because you have other plans, you're not trying to jack that car, are you?" Mograbee put to Arnold.
"That's not correct," he replied.
Mograbee responded: "Come on, Mr. Arnold, there are plenty of luxury cars in Edmonton."
Two pieces of audio featured heavily in the prosecutor's cross-examination of Arnold.
The first involves the footage from a neighbour's home security camera.
As part of his carjacking story, Arnold testified that when he approached the couple as they pulled out of their driveway in their Bentley, he ordered Fouani to "get the f–k out of the car."
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