deadmonton 2005 - hassan mohammed yussuf

Huyser-Wierenga told the seven woman, five man jury that Hassan Mohammed Yussuf was attacked by three of four people he was driving to north Edmonton.

"The cab was stopped and he was hauled out forcibly from the driver's seat," Huyser-Wierenga said.

"He was stabbed on the way out and he was then forced into a watery ditch where he was attacked more."

"He begged for his life, pleading he had a wife and children ... and was regrettably shown no mercy."

Huyser-Wierenga said Yussuf was then taken from the ditch and stuffed into the trunk of his Yellow Cab – which he described as a "tomb" – and left to bleed to death.

When police opened the trunk of the taxi, they found Yussuf inside, his eyes open and staring upward. Blood covered his shirt and bloody finger marks lined the trunk lid.

The prosecutor said Yussuf picked up his "final, fatal fare" around 6:45 a.m. on April 8th, 2005, from a Mac's convenience store at 10406 107 Avenue.

He was attacked thirty minutes later in north Edmonton near the Manning Freeway.

The jury was told the cab was then stolen and driven back to a residential area where it was abandoned around 8 a.m. in the parking lot of the Castle Downs Baptist Church at 153rd Avenue just east of Castle Downs Road.

The fourth person Yussuf picked up at the convenience store, 30-year-old Cathy Fiddler, was to be called to testify against the three accused, Huyser-Wierenga said.

Fiddler was expected to say she was partying with the trio at her downtown apartment on the evening of April 7th, 2005.

Huyser-Wierenga said the woman had no idea what was going to happen after the four of them got into Yussuf's cab.

"Deidre Baptiste directed the cab to drive to northeast Edmonton," Huyser-Wierenga told the jury. "Fiddler had no foreknowledge of violence and robbery."

The prosecutor said Fiddler was "shocked" by the attack and felt she had to comply with the "orders" she was later given, including opening the trunk of the cab and driving it to the Castle Downs neighbourhood.

"She felt she had no choice but to comply," Huyser-Wierenga said.

Fiddler was expected to say the four took a bus after dumping the taxi, later taking another cab back to her place.

After more several days of drinking, the others left. Fiddler eventually went to police and told them what had happened and where Yussuf's cab could be found.

Police said they later found evidence from the murder inside her suite.

A second Crown witness, Corinne Saddleback, was expected to testify that Strongman and Crane told her they were "taking responsibility for killing a cab driver."

Huyser-Wierenga told the jury that because Yussuf was killed during the commission of a crime, Strongman, Baptiste and Crane were charged with first-degree murder.

First to testify was Edmonton Police Service Const. Cameron Forstey.

Forstey detailed the contents of the cab's trunk which included $7,500 in bills of various denominations hidden and stuffed into four ziplock bags, and a quantity of qat, a leaf commonly chewed by African peoples for its mild narcotic effect.

A post-mortem examination of Yussuf's teeth showed he had been chewing qat shortly before he died.

When police went to Cathy Fiddler's apartment, where the alleged killers congregated after the crime, they found a ziplock bag containing qat.

Police didn't speculate about how Yussuf accumulated the cash, which was undiscovered by his killers, or why Yussuf chose to carry it in the trunk of his taxi.

After the initial investigation into Yussuf's killing, the money was turned over to his wife.

The public gallery in Courtroom 417 of Edmonton's Provincial Law Courts building was sharply divided, an illustration of contrasting cultures – read more »

The trial continued with testimony coming from Cathy Fiddler, the woman who was tasked to drive Hassan Mohammed Yussuf's cab after he was murdered.

Fiddler told the court that on the night of April 7th, 2005, Karl Strongman, Ronald Crane and Deidre Baptiste – the latter two being former friends – dropped by her apartment uninvited.

Partying was the order of the day, and for hours her friends smoked crystal meth speed and drank beer. Fiddler joined them, but stayed away from the meth.

By morning, the drugs had run out. Baptiste had already tapped out her ATM account and was hoping to get more cash for drugs and beer at a Money Mart outlet.

Baptiste told Fiddler to join the trio for the walk to a Mac's convenience store a few blocks away at 10406 107 Avenue to summon a cab. Cabs wouldn't come to Fiddler's inner city apartment building on 90th Street because of its notorious reputation.

The first taxi that spotted the partying quartet took one look and drove off. The second cab that came by was Yussuf's.

"Deidre told me to jump in the front. They jumped in the back," Fiddler said.

Baptiste began giving Yussuf directions, eventually sending the taxi to the northeast edge of the city, ending up on a side road near Evergreen Mobile Home Park.

"I heard Scooter [Strongman] say 'Can you stop the cab – I have to puke,' " Fiddler testified.

Yussuf stopped his cab and Strongman got out, quickly followed by Crane who circled around and pulled open the driver's door.

"I remember him [Yussuf] saying 'What's going on.' That's when I saw the big blade and the stabbing motion," Fiddler testified.

"All I could see was the shiny part of a knife, but I would say it was going into his chest. I can't say I saw the knife go in."

The knife was described as being like those used by butchers.

On the stand, Cathy Fiddler broke out in tears, her sobbing echoed by those of Yussuf's family sitting in the gallery.

Farhia Yussuf, Hassan's wife and mother of their seven children, left the courtroom and returned several times during the testimony.

Baptiste then leaped out of the cab, Fiddler continued, also with a knife in hand.

"I saw a stabbing motion but I didn't see the knife go in. It was a smaller blade. I went into shock."

Yussuf yelled out but Fiddler couldn't make out his words. Baptiste grabbed one arm, Crane grabbed the other and the pair hauled him out of the taxi.

The three then forced Yussuf into a water-filled ditch, holding him down. Baptist and Crane stood over him on either side.

"After a time period someone started yelling to me to open the trunk," Fiddler told the jury.

She eventually found the release button and popped the trunk.

"I could hear Junior [Crane] yelling, 'Help me put this body in the trunk.' Then they jumped in the vehicle. I was told to drive.

"I had to do it. If they were capable of doing that to the cab driver, they were capable of anything."

As they drove off, Crane cut the wires to the cab's meter, its radio and its GPS locator system. He threw the devices out the window.

On their way back into greater Edmonton, the foursome became acutely aware that despite his wounds, Yussuf wasn't dead.

It was a scene straight out of the movie Goodfellas, with the victim refusing to cooperate by dying.

Yussuf's kicking and hammering noises prompted the pulling over of the cab.

"Let's go finish this," Crane told Strongman. Together they went outside and opened the trunk.

Minutes later, they climbed back inside. The cab pulled away. With Yussuf dead, the trunk was now silent.

After parking the cab at Lakeside Landing with its driver entombed in the trunk, Baptiste split up the haul. The man's life had netted them $800.

Fiddler didn't refuse the $100 given her and the foursome walked away to catch a bus downtown. Police found the cab four days later.

Flush with money, the quartet returned to Fiddler's apartment for another three days of partying.

In a perfect case, the Crown would not likely have chosen Cathy Fiddler for a witness. The native woman had a long history of substance abuse and an equally long list of criminal convictions.

Fiddler had her six children taken from her and put in the care of her father because of a crack cocaine habit she developed after she gave birth to her last child, shortly after she and her husband split up in 2003.

"I went into a state of depression," she told the jury.

In order to get her children back, Fiddler took five substance abuse programs and had to get an apartment of her own, something Children's Services directed her to do.

When Crane, Baptiste and Strongman showed up in April 2005, Fiddler saw her chance of getting her children back slip away.

Coupled with the shock of Yussuf's murder, turning her friends over to police seemed a good way to demonstrate her rehabilitation.

Fiddler's account provided a perfect timeline – with detailed culpability, a blueprint few Crown prosecutions are afforded.

Bringing the Yussuf murder case to trial, the Crown acknowledged Fiddler's efforts and did not charge her in connection with his death.

On the stand, Fiddler expressed her reaction to the crime.

"I was terrified. I have never seen anything like that happen. I was scared and I thought how could you do that to someone?" she said.

"If I had known [Baptiste] was going to kill a cab driver there is no way in hell I would have gone with them.

"That is not human."

Fiddler was expected to face stiff cross-examination from defence lawyers.

Back at Cathy Fiddler's apartment, the party continued with a fresh stock of crack cocaine and plenty of one-litre bottles of extra-strong beer.

Sometime after returning from the Castle Downs neighbourhood where they left Yussuf dead in the trunk of his own taxi, a man came by Fiddler's apartment.

"Junior [Crane] told Wes he wanted to order some drugs. I don't remember everything that happened," Fiddler re-counted on the stand.

Hours passed. Days passed. The partying didn't stop.

"I remember Junior [Crane] telling Wes 'I killed a cab driver.' "

Crown prosecutor Mark Huyser-Wierenga asked, "Those were his words?"

"Those were Junior's words," Fiddler confirmed.

After buying some more crack cocaine with Yussuf's money, the partying continued.

Debbie Crane, mother of Deidre and Ronald, came by.

"Junior was kneeling down in front of his mother saying 'We killed a cab driver' and his mom's comment was, 'Are you stupid?' All Scooter [Strongman] said was 'Don't tell my mom.' "

People came and went and Fiddler soon ran out of money. The $100 she got out of the $800 stolen from Yussuf didn't go far and she pawned her television set to buy more Colt 45 beer, an 8% malt liquor.

Three days after the murder, Fiddler heard a discussion take place in a bedroom of her apartment.

Talking were Baptiste, Crane and an unnamed male friend.

"I overheard a conversation that 'If anything happens, we'll put this on Cathy.' "

Huyser-Wierenga asked, "How did you feel as a result of hearing that?"

"I don't know how I felt then. Now I would think how could she do that to me?

"We're supposed to be friends. Friends don't do that to friends."

The next day, after everybody left, reality began to sink in for Cathy Fiddler.

"Everything just hit me. I was a wreck. I made a phone call to a girlfriend and begged her not to say anything to anybody."

The friend told Cathy to phone her father. Cathy then called police. Officers arrived and took statements from the worried woman.

The Crown prosecutor asked, "Did you ask for any sort of promises when you gave that information?"

Fiddler replied, "No, I did not."

Then came questioning from Deidre Baptiste's defence lawyer, Peter Royal.

Royal began by trying to discredit the Crown's key witness, a process made up of several hours of relentless grilling that must have left Fiddler feel like she was the one on trial.

Royal asked Fiddler if she understood the oath she had given to tell the truth.

Fiddler replied that she did and said she was in court "to tell the truth about what happened."

When pressed by Royal, Fiddler did admit she had lied under oath to a judge on at least three occasions in other cases.

He brought up her criminal record: eight arrests between 1992 and 2006.

Included were arrests for lying to police to get charges laid against her husband, and another for a robbery in the months following Yussuf's murder while she was in the RCMP's witness protection program.

Fiddler testified she was paid $34,000 as part of the program but she was no longer in it after she, her cousin, and her boyfriend, were arrested with nine ounces of crack cocaine in August 2005. She was currently out on bail for the drug dealing charge.

She also admitted she was still a user of crack cocaine and had sometimes prostituted herself to earn money for drugs.

Royal compared statements Fiddler first made to police and later at a preliminary hearing with the testimony she just gave in court.

Fiddler began crying as she tried to explain and at one point became upset with Royal.

"You were not there," yelled Fiddler. "You did not see what I saw and you did not hear what I heard."

"I'm suggesting you made that up," Royal proposed.

"No, I did not," Fiddler replied.

Fiddler denied going to police several days after the killing for the sole reason of self-preservation.

However, she agreed her father told her police would be looking for her because her fingerprints were all over the cab, and that he advised her to call police to avoid being charged as a co-defendant.

Royal suggested that by thinking if she offered herself as a witness, she would not be charged. He reminded her that several times in the preliminary hearing held in 2006 she had almost admitted as much.

In a cross-examination at the time, she was asked if she had confessed "so you would beat them to the punch?"

"If you want to put it like that," Fiddler answered.

Royal suggested to the court that Fiddler had acted out of self-interest: Yussuf had been directed to drive to an area where Fiddler grew up, she was present at the killing, drove the cab back to Edmonton, and the knife allegedly used to kill the taxi driver was found in her apartment.

Royal pointed out that during three separate interviews with police, Fiddler never mentioned a statement she said was made by Crane.

In her earlier testimony, when the three accused heard Yussuf banging and yelling in the trunk, Fiddler said Crane told the others, "Let's go finish this."

Royal went so far as to call Fiddler a liar.

"Does your memory get better over time?"

Fiddler responded, "Well if you kept replaying what happens over and over in your head, then yes. I have had a lot of time to recover and re-traumatize. A lot of time to remember."

Royal told Fiddler she had reason to change her story.

"I'm suggesting it isn't a memory problem, it's a fabrication problem. You went to police only for the reasons of self-preservation."

Royal continued to pepper Fiddler on the stand, implying she may have had more to do with Yussuf's murder than she was telling.

"You were desperate for money."

"No, I wasn't," she replied.

"You were desperate for drugs."

"No, I wasn't," she again said.

Throughout the cross-examination, Fiddler maintained she never harmed Yussuf. She said she opened the trunk, drove the cab, and accepted the $100 because she was too scared not to because she was terrified of the three accused.

"If I do take off they're going to find me, they're going to kill me."

Leaving the courthouse at the end of the trial's second day, Yussuf's family were met by media. It marked the first time one of the cabbie's young sons attended the trial – read more »

On the morning of her third day of testimony, Cathy Fiddler received a severe awakening.

As part of his cross-examintion of the Crown's chief witness, defence lawyer Peter Royal stunned Fiddler when he informed her of a $1.3 million lawsuit filed against her by the Yussuf family.

"Have you been served with a statement of claim filed yesterday at 8 p.m. by the Yussuf family?" Royal asked.

Fiddler was taken aback by the question and said she had not received the statement of claim.

The document, also filed against Karl Strongman, Ronald Crane and Deidre Baptiste, contained allegations that haven't been proven in court.

The civil papers named Fiddler as a co-defendant in the killing even though she was not criminally charged with Yussuf's murder.

The jury wasn't shown the statement of claim and it wasn't entered as evidence in the trial.

The timing of the claim announcement served as a convenient finish to Royal's effort to discredit the Crown witness.

Before he relinquished his turn with Fiddler, Royal read back several statements she made on prior occasions.

"That's the whole reason that I phoned because I don't want to look like I'm guilty," Royal paraphrased her call to police.

Fiddler replied, "Those are my words, but that's not the whole reason I called."

Fiddler's cross-examination continued with questions now coming from Karl "Scooter" Strongman's defence lawyer, Naeem Rauf.

Rauf challenged parts of Fiddler's testimony, focusing on the moment Yussuf was hauled out of his cab.

"You say you saw Mr. Yussuf being brought out of his taxi ... you didn't see Scooter?"

Fiddler replied, "Yes."

"So it's safe to say you didn't see Scooter anywhere around?"

"Possibly, yes," Fiddler conceded.

Rauf suggested Fiddler was as much responsible for Yussuf's murder as the three accused.

She drove the cab after the initial attack and opened the trunk so the others could finish him, Rauf told the court.

"You actually committed an act which helped in the killing of Mr. Yussuf?" questioned Rauf.

"If you want to say that, yes," said Fiddler, bursting into tears.

Rauf asked Fiddler why she did not try to intervene as the attack on Yussuf began.

"Did you utter one word to get them to stop?"

"No," Fiddler again responded.

"Did you utter one word to get them to stop hurting him?"

"No."

"Did you plead with them to stop?"

"No."

Fiddler denied that she could have saved Yussuf's life by driving away when Strongman and Crane left the cab.

"If I did drive away, Deidre was in the back and I didn't know if she had a knife.

"And, if she did have a knife and did something to me, I would not be here to testify about what these people did to that cab driver," she said.

Rauf addressed how important it was to Fiddler to report the matter to police immediately.

"The death of this taxi driver didn't appear to interrupt your social life?"

"Not a ton, no," Fiddler admitted.

The defence lawyer also questioned Fiddler's ability to remember conversations she heard during the drug-and-booze marathon after the killing. Rauf referred to Strongman's plea to Debbie Crane not to tell his mother.

"And you claim to remember this conversation? In fact the crack cocaine blocked out this conversation."

"No," Fiddler responded.

Rauf then confronted Fiddler about taking money that came from a violent murder.

"Did you feel bad having this blood money?" asked Rauf.

"Of course I did," replied Fiddler. She agreed she never returned the money to Yussuf's family and used it to buy drugs.

"I needed something to forget about this," she said.

"How could you take a slain man's money and blow it on crack cocaine?" asked Rauf.

"I don't know," was Fiddler's answer.

The last cross-examination Cathy Fiddler faced came from Ronald Crane's lawyer, Mike Danyluik, who continued the defence's theme that she was an equal party to the murder and lent her own contribution to the series of events.

Danyluik tried to tie Fiddler closer to the killing.

In earlier sworn testimony to the courts and to police, Fiddler claimed she was never near the cab's trunk when it was open.

When police searched her apartment the week after the killing, they found a ziplock bag of qat, the mildly-narcotic leaf chewed by Yussuf. A large amount of qat was found in the trunk of his taxi.

Danyluik asked Fiddler how the qat made its way from the trunk to her apartment.

"I don't know how those drugs got into my apartment," Fiddler retorted.

Danyluik asked the witness about the seating arrangement in the cab, with Fiddler riding in the front seat and Baptiste in the back.

Fiddler claimed Baptiste gave instructions to Yussuf about where to go and where to stop. Baptiste was from Hobbema, while Fiddler grew up in northeast Edmonton.

How could that be, Danyluik asked.

That's what happened, Fiddler replied.

Danyluik itemised the physical evidence later found in Fiddler's apartment, including sweatshirts stained with Yussuf's blood.

Fiddler admitted they were her's, but she said they were borrowed by the defendants on the morning of the killing and left in her apartment sometime later.

Police also found blood-soaked jeans that belonged to Fiddler. She claimed they were also borrowed that morning by Baptiste. Fiddler had earlier testified she wore warm-up pants when Yussuf was killed.

Danyluik then reminded Fiddler about the testimony of a Co-op cab driver during the 2006 preliminary hearing who said he gave a ride to the four after the killing and that Fiddler rode in the front seat beside him.

"The driver said the lady in the front seat was not wearing sweat pants or black track pants. She was wearing jeans," Danyluik told Fiddler.

"I was not," Fiddler answered.

"Because the jeans had the cabbie's blood on them?"

"Right," Fiddler said.

The Co-op cab driver was expected to testify again during the trial.

Court also heard testimony from medical examiner Dr. Bernard Bannach.

Hussan Yussuf suffered seven stab wounds and one minor cut to the neck. The fatal wound was delivered by a stab into the back of the chest cavity, resulting in a collapsed lung, loss of blood and cardiac arrest.

Bannach estimated that it took Yussuf five minutes to an hour to succumb to his injuries.

For the Crown, Cathy Fiddler's testimony had turned into a situation that called for damage control.

On the stand for three days, their star witness was often reduced to tears for the majority of that time by the relentless attacks of three defence lawyers trying to discredit her.

In contrast, Crown prosecutor Lawrence Van Dyke's rebuttal questions were calm and measured as he asked Fiddler about her recent criminal charges and to explain why she had previously lied to the courts.

In 1996, Fiddler told police her husband had physically assaulted her. She then called police to say she had lied and police released Fiddler's husband from jail.

They charged her with filing a false report and she pleaded guilty to public mischief.

She now testified that she had lied to the court and her husband did assault her.

"I did it to save my husband from going to jail. I had two children, I was pregnant and I needed him," Fiddler said.

She earlier admitted that she had recently ignored a peace bond that directed her to stay at least three blocks away from the home occupied by her father, stepmother and her own six children.

"He went out of his way to contact me," she testified. "I would come over, I would visit with my kids and my father – he's all that I got."

In April 2006, while in the RCMP's witness protection plan and waiting to testify against Strongman, Baptiste and Crane, Fiddler had gotten into trouble again.

A St. Paul area woman had accused Fiddler of threatening her with a tire iron and taking $300 in cash and seven marijuana cigarettes.

After police told Fiddler she could be convicted of robbery, assault and uttering threats, she pleaded guilty to assault.

It was all a misunderstanding, Fiddler testified. The tire iron she carried was intended to protect her from the woman's dogs. All she took was seven marijuana cigarettes and she thought the woman had given them to her as a favour, Fiddler said.

"I took that offer [of a single charge of assault] so I could get it over and done with," said Fiddler.

In late January 2007, coverage of the Yussuf murder case became sporadic as media resources were focused on the sensational trial of Nina Courtepatte.

While the Courtepatte trial was certainly headline-worthy news, testimony from the Crown's next witness nearly put the Yussuf trial on the funny pages.

Corinne Saddleback, a 30-year-old single mother of five, was expected to tell the court of statements made to her by all three of the accused within hours of Yussuf's murder.

"Fucking goofs," she said while looking toward Strongman, Baptiste and Crane in the prisoner's box.

A shocked gasp filled the gallery.

"I just had to share that," she continued.

Saddleback, alternating between tears and anger, was asked who she had been living with in the spring of 2005.

With her kids, she replied, and "some losers" who she was helping out.

When asked who she was referring to, Saddleback pointed and said, "Those two losers over there, Deidre Baptiste and Junior Crane."

"Those two black people over there who have no life and who killed that person. I hate you."

The outburst caused the judge to ask the jury to leave the courtroom.

As they filed out, Saddleback glared at the accused and said, "I'm not a rat. You're just losers."

A short time later, the trial resumed.

Saddleback testified Baptiste and Crane were staying at her south-side apartment when Crane came into her bedroom.

It was between 3:00 and 4:00 in the afternoon on April 8th, 2005 – just hours after Yussuf's murder – and Saddleback was suffering from the flu when Crane crouched down beside her.

"He said they fucking killed a cab driver," she said on the stand.

Saddleback said Karl "Scooter" Strongman was also in her bedroom, complaining of a problem.

"Scooter was telling me he had blood on his boots. He needed to get rid of his boots. I offered him other shoes and he didn't want to take [the shoes] from my front door. He was going to buy new ones."

As she continued testifying, Saddleback kept referring to the accused as "fucking losers." She was warned by the judge.

She replied: "I just want to tell my true story about what they told me, and get on with my merry life."

Saddleback said she later spoke to Baptiste on the phone and claimed she confessed to the killing.

"Holy shit, we killed somebody," Deidre said, according to Saddleback's testimony.

She said Baptiste told her "Scooter acted like he was being sick, and Junior grabbed the cab driver and started stabbing him and I helped him put him in the trunk and the cabbie said, 'Please don't kill me, I have five kids,' and they put him in the trunk."

"She said Scooter acted like he was puking. They said they were fucked up on meth or pink [a type of crystal methamphetamine] and wanted to kill someone."

Saddleback told the court that Baptiste said, "When we're on that stuff, we feel like killing people."

Under cross-examination, Saddleback admitted she had a criminal record [variously reported as being between 45 and 60 convictions] and was facing further charges.

"Why do you want to know about me – I'm here to help you!" Saddleback barked at defence lawyer Peter Royal.

The jury was dismissed while the judge tried to restore order. Saddleback then became argumentative and refused to answer any more questions.

The trial was adjourned for the day.

The trial resumed after a weekend break. The period did little to settle the composure of the Crown's current witness.

Facing Corrine Saddleback was defence lawyer Naeem Rauf who pointed out to Saddleback that she was late again for court, wasting everyone's time.

Chewing on a plug of gum, Saddleback shot back "Yeah, so?"

Rauf pointed out to the jury that Saddleback had changed her story a number of times, and at times had lied outright.

Saddleback, her arms folded, said she didn't want to be in court and agreed that she was wasting everyone's time. She went on to say, "I'm ready to have a nervous breakdown over these questions."

The woman maintained that Strongman admitted to killing Yussuf, but that when he made the confession, she didn't believe him.

Saddleback said "I don't remember nothing – and I'm not going to say any more until I have my lawyer here."

The judge adjourned the trial for the day.

The court then heard testimony from the Co-op cab driver who picked up the trio as they were making their way from the Castle Downs neighbourhood back downtown.

The cab driver testified Baptiste wore a pair of red track pants when he picked up the defendants and Fiddler following the killing.

Fiddler wore jeans, the cab driver said.

Surveillance video was shown from a camera at a Husky gas station located near the Mac's store where Yussuf picked his accused murderers.

The footage, taken shortly before the killing, also showed Baptiste wearing red track pants with a white strip down the side.

The question of clothing worn the day Hassan Mohammed Yussuf was killed became relevant as Deidre Baptiste's lawyer Peter Royal and Ronald Crane's lawyer Mike Danyluik argued in their closing arguments that neither Cathy Fiddler nor Corinne Saddleback – the Crown's chief witnesses – should be believed.

If they can't be believed the jury must find all three defendants not guilty, the lawyers asserted.

Fiddler in particular was suspect because she was likely the prime architect of the killing, according to Royal.

She only went to police because it was in her best interest to become their chief informant, thereby escaping possible charges.

Royal reminded the jury Fiddler called Crime Stoppers before she called police so she could collect a reward.

The lawyer cited evidence seized by police in Fiddler's apartment: a bag containing the mildly-narcotic leaf chewed by Yussuf, the knife used in the killing and clothing stained with Yussuf's blood.

Fiddler claimed Baptiste wore the stained pair of jeans when the murder occurred. A Co-op cab driver testified it was Fiddler who wore the jeans.

"She really is a piece of work. You have to be very, very careful of Miss Fiddler. She is a very, very dangerous person – a dangerous witness, a person used to making false accusations against other people," Royal cautioned.

The lawyer then turned his attack to the credibility of Corrine Saddleback, the woman who claimed the three defendants "ruined her life."

During cross-examination, Royal had Saddleback admit that Baptiste "would never be on her Christmas card list."

In a Perry Mason moment, Royal produced a Christmas card that Saddleback sent to Baptiste in December, 2006.

For his part, defence lawyer Naeem Rauf said the character of the Crown's pair of chief witnesses was "poisoned by lies, cheating and deception".

Rauf called them "depraved" and warned the jury that their evidence was "highly suspect."

Macklin began reading his charge at 1:30 p.m. and finished at 4:00 p.m. with only a 10-minute recess at midpoint.

"Your duty is to decide what are the facts in this case. You are the sole judges of the facts," he stated.

Long and complex, the judge's address cautioned the jury with respect to the credibility of the Crown's two key witnesses.

Macklin informed the jurors that the rule of reasonable doubt applies to the credibility of all witnesses who took the stand.

"It would be dangerous to accept what Cathy Fiddler and Corrine Saddleback said without other corroborating evidence," said Macklin.

"Be extremely cautious in accepting the testimony, and look for supporting evidence."

Macklin delivered this warning because of the extensive criminal records of both women who lied to the police and the courts when it suited their purposes.

Cathy Fiddler said she was only an innocent bystander when her companions robbed and killed Hassan Yussuf.

Lawyers for the three accused argued that Fiddler was a participant if not the principle architect of the killing.

Corrine Saddleback, who said she was told by two of the defendants that they had committed the crime, is equally problematic, the judge said.

In the hours after allegedly being told by Strongman and Crane that they had killed the cab driver, Saddleback phoned Crime Stoppers in an attempt to collect an offered reward.

Karl Blair "Scooter" Strongman, Ronald Adrian "Junior" Crane and Deidre Renee Baptiste were charged with first-degree murder, unlawful confinement and robbery.

"Each person is entitled to separate consideration for each charge," Macklin told the seven women and five men.

"Your sole task is to determine whether one of more of the defendants is guitly of one or more of the crimes."

On the charge of murder, the jury has the option of dropping that offence to second-degree murder or manslaughter or finding each and every one of the defendants not guilty on that charge as well as the other charges, the judge said.

Karl "Scooter" Strongman was found guilty of manslaughter, unlawful confinement and robbery.

The manslaughter conviction could see Strongman serve a sentence ranging from house arrest to life in prison.

Deidre Baptiste and Ronald "Junior" Crane were found guilty of second-degree murder, unlawful confinement and robbery.

Second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence. Crane and Baptiste would have to serve at least 10 years in prison before parole eligibility.

When asked by Justice Eric Macklin to recommend an appropriate time before parole eligibility, most jurors recommended Crane and Baptiste should serve 15 to 18 years first.

All three had been initially charged with first-degree murder.

Sentencing dates were set for March 29th and 30th, 2007.

As he was being led from the courtroom, Strongman shouted to his supporters, "I love you all. I am a martyr."

Lorinda Strongman, Karl's mother, and Debbie Crane, mother of Ronald and Deidre, hunched forward and wept after the verdicts were entered.

The trial was marked by a sharp, often volatile division in the gallery. After the verdict, emotions spilled out when family and friends representing both sides left the courthouse – read more »

Also outside court, Crown prosecutor Mark Huyser-Wierenga, reflected on the two key witnesses and the trial's outcome.

"We felt all along these women were being credible and honest about what information that they had for the jurors and obviously the felt the same way," he said.

"You know we can't behind what the reasons the jury had for their verdict. They had their reasons and those reasons are their's and they can't by law speak about what their reasons were.

"And I understand of course the disappointment of the victim's family no matter what the result is – it's not going to change the fundamental reality that they've lost a father and a husband."

Crown prosecutor Mark Huyser-Wierenga told the court "Hassan Yussuf was reduced to begging for his life ... but he was shown no mercy.

"He fled and brought himself and his family to Canada to provide for his family and to clearly avoid the dangers of his native country.

"We can't escape the very tragic irony that Mr. Yussuf escaped his native country to avoid the dangers of lawlessness and violence. The irony, of course, in the process of doing that it cost him his own life."

"He lost his own life as a result of his encounter with these accused," Huyser-Wierenga said.

The Crown lawyer then asked that Ronald Crane and Deidre Baptiste be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for 20 to 25 years, and that Karl Strongman serve between 15 and 18 years in prison for his role.

When the jury was earlier asked for their recommendations for an appropriate time before parole eligibility, most jurors suggested Crane and Baptiste should serve 15 to 18 years first.

Second-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison with a minimum of 10 years without parole.

Huyser-Wierenga said Baptist, Crane and Strongman had numerous opportunities to rob Yussuf of cash for alcohol and drugs without killing him.

"At several stages, less violent means could have been used. There was no need for the use of any actual violence against this man at all.

"But there was no, ‘Give us your money, get out of the cab, we've got knives here and we're going to use them.' Mr. Yussuf wasn't given any options."

Court also heard that while Crane was being held in the remand centre awaiting trial, he participated in the beating of another inmate who was left in a vegetative state. Crane assaulted the man who was lying on the floor after he was first attacked by others. Crane pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison for the offence.

Hassan Yussuf's wife, Fahria Ali, and three of his seven children read their victim impact statements into the record.

Seven-year-old Iman Yussuf told the judge how the murder of her father had changed her life.

"A little girl needs a daddy for many things," she said. "I miss his hugs and kisses. I miss when he tucked me in bed and he read me a story.

"I wish I could go back to time and see my dad again.

"I don't think my mom liked how he got murdered," she said, bringing many in the courtroom to tears.

"Daddy, I love you for all the things you do. It reminds me how nice you were to me and the time you played with me everyday. I miss you so much.

"My mom and dad wanted me to be a doctor and when I grow up I'm looking forward to that," she continued, ending by telling her father, "I love you."

"I feel anger when I am going somewhere and see a kid with his father. Our family was complete but sadly an unexpected event happened," said 12-year-old Evyan.

"Our lives used to be so complete and filled with happiness and joy, but that was all taken away the day my father was brutally killed. It hurts to see other kids with their dads."

Ali said she lost not only her husband but her best friend, a "family man" who sacrificed much to provide for his large, young family.

"I stand before you today in hope that no wife or child should lose their husband or father in such a brutal and senseless way.

"I hope this court will see to the task of accomplishing that and preventing another family from experiencing the indescribable pain we have gone through.

"Life without him is so empty, and I still have denial that he is dead," Ali said. "When I leave the house, I imagine him everywhere."

As the statements were being read out, in the prisoner's box Baptiste placed her elbows on her knees, hung her head and cried.

Crane shuffled in his seat, while Strongman sat bolt upright looking straight ahead.

The spectator's gallery was filled with supporters of the three killers along with the many family and friends of Yussuf.

Defence lawyers for Baptiste and Crane, Peter Royal and Mike Danyluik respectively, asked their clients become eligible for parole after 15 years.

But Strongman's lawyer, Naeem Rauf, objected that his client was being sentenced on the basis of his criminal record, some of which was innacurately represented in court.

Strongman's lengthy record was said to have included an attack on a woman with a golf club that left her unconscious and requiring stitches. Nauf said it was Strongman's identical twin brother Kyle who was responsible for the assault, and that the two sometimes would "share" court dates and charges.

Prosecutor Huyser-Wierenga said the issue should have been brought up as early as Karl Strongman's bail hearing early in 2005.

Justice Macklin adjourned the hearing until the matter could be sorted out.

Rauf asked for a sentence of time served for what he called a "peripheral" role in the slaying, and that Strongman should get a three-for-one credit for the nearly two years he's spent in the Edmonton Remand Centre.

Six years would be an appropriate sentence for the manslaughter conviction, the lawyer maintained, which would mean Strongman would be released having served his time.

Macklin sentenced Ronald Adrian "Junior" Crane to life in prison without a chance of parole for 22 years.

Deidre Renee Baptiste, a mother of four, was sentenced to life in prison without a chance of parole for 18 years.

In addition, both Crane and Baptiste will remain supervised for life. While the period of parole ineligibility sets the date for which they can apply for release, they must first convince a parole board they pose no threat to society before regaining any measure of freedom.

In pronouncing sentence, Justice Macklin Bench called their actions "abhorrent and despicable."

Macklin didn't seem to hold back in his condemnation of the pair and noted the motive for robbing and killing Yussuf was to simply get money to satisfy their own "selfish needs" for more drugs and alcohol.

"Both Ms. Baptiste and Mr. Crane have referred to their difficult past and, particularly, the profound impact on them caused by the death of their father in 1995," Macklin said.

"How tragically ironic that they seemingly did not bear this fact in mind while mercilessly killing Mr. Yussuf and leaving his seven children with the very same loss they say had a devastating effect on them.

"The actions of Mr. Crane and Ms. Baptiste exhibited a cruel and depraved brutality.

"Their continuous and vicious cruelty to a man who had begged for his life and told them of his family were the heartless and merciless acts of two thugs who now ask the court to show them some leniency, something they clearly refused to consider for Mr. Yussuf.

"It bears mentioning the tragic irony in this case caused by the reprehensible actions of these two convicts. Mr. Yussuf escaped a war-torn and lawless country so that he could find a safe and peaceful country in which to raise a family.

"In a senseless act of lawlessness, the kind from which he tried to escape and immunize his family from, he was callously murdered in the country he chose for its peacefulness and opportunities."

Addressing Deidre Baptiste, Justice Macklin said the public needed to be protected from her.

"It is also necessary to denounce your despicable behaviour and to deter you and others from comitting such horrible crimes in our community."

After Baptiste heard her the term of her sentence, she hung her head and wiped away tears.

Macklin described Ronald Crane's behaviour as abhorrent and called him a dangerous man saying, "It is necessary to protect the public from you and prevent you from harming anyone else."

Crane now has 50 convictions to his name.

Macklin noted that neither Crane or Baptiste had shown any remorse toward the Yussuf family. Despite repeated invitations, neither addressed the court before they were sentenced.

In the gallery Debbie Crane, Ronald and Deidre's mother, sniffled and sobbed. About 30 friends and family of Yussuf simply looked on quietly as Justice Macklin completed the reading of his sentencing decision.

Throughout, Crane showed no emotion.

But as he was being led away by a court sherriff, Crane turned and yelled, "See you later, love you all" to his supporters. This was followed by "This is bullshit" and a more graphic string of expletives.

Yussuf's daughters told him to shut up.

As she was being led to cells, Baptiste blew kisses to her family members.

Karl Strongman was to be sentenced June 1st, 2007, after details of his actual criminal record were sorted out.

The Crown had asked for a sentence of between 15 and 18 years before parole eligibility; the defence has suggested six.

Outside court, both sides offered their views to media – read more »

Strongman had already been found guilty of manslaughter, unlawful confinement and robbery by a jury on February 8th, 2007.

On March 29th the Crown had asked for a sentence of between 15 and 18 years before parole eligibility; the defence suggested six taking into account the two-for-one time served in the Edmonton Remand Centre.

Those recommendations were repeated before Justice Eric Macklin at Strongman's latest appearance.

For his part Strongman, who continued to claim he was unjustly convicted, bowed his head and tearfully read out a two-page handwritten letter expressing his remorse and regret before being sentenced.

"I'm starting this out by saying that I do feel for all the families that have been touched by this tragic event. No one started out with any intentions of hurting anybody. This I know from the bottom of my heart. I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to stop what happened before it happened.

"I'm not an evil person, just as I know the victim of this event wasn't. Like him, I've seen much tragedy in my life and I hope, unlike him, I get the chance to tell people my story. Maybe his story can come out in my story.

"I can't change the past, only learn from it. I've spent time in jail not for what I did, but for what I didn't do and I'll never let it happen again. Please give me the chance to prove this."

Strongman urged young people to not give in to peer pressure and said it was better to say "no" and stay home.

"As you can see from my situation, the results can be tragic," he said, adding he will be haunted by it forever.

As Strongman read his statement, his family wept in court.

Strongman's defence lawyer, Naeem Rauf, read out several submissions regarding his client's character which described the young man as a kind person who goes to church.

Rauf also told the court there was no evidence that Strongman ever touched the victim.

Justice Macklin then sentenced Strongman to 12 years for manslaughter, and five years each for his unlawful confinement and robbery convictions, all to be served concurrently. He credited Strongman with 24 months pretrial custody, leaving him with just under eight years left to serve.

While handing out his decision, Macklin repeated some of the sentiments he expressed during the sentencing of Ronald Adrian "Junior" Crane and Deidre Renee Baptiste.

Macklin said Yussuf was "callously murdered" in a "senseless act of lawlessness."

The Justice noted that Yussuf escaped a war-torn and lawless country so he could raise his family in a safe and peaceful country. He came to Canada and "worked hard at a job unworthy of his education and abilities. He did so for the purpose of providing for his family and making a better life for them," Macklin said.

"As a taxi driver, he was particularly vulnerable to those members of society, such as Mr. Strongman and his co-offenders, who have no respect for honest, hard-working wage earners. These criminal took advantage of Mr. Yussuf's vulnerability to satisfy their own selfish desires for more alcohol and drugs. Your behaviour towards Mr. Yussuf was cruel and merciless."

Macklin ruled that, while there was no direct evidence Strongman had assaulted Yussuf or helped to stab him, he played a "significant" role by being a party to the plan to rob him and helped Crane put the cab driver in the trunk. Macklin also said he believed Strongman knew his partners carried knives and intended to use them.

"The robbery, confinement and killing of Mr. Yussuf were unprovoked vicious acts that have no place in a just and peaceful society," said Macklin.

As Strongman waved while being led away, his family and friends called out in unison, "Love you Scooter."

Emotions continued to ride high outside court – read more »