Man gets life sentence in killing at Brantford motel

BRANTFORD A 25-year-old Hamilton-area man pleaded guilty Wednesday morning in Superior Court to second-degree murder in connection with a shooting at a Brantford motel.

Shajjah Hossain Idrish also pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder.

He was originally charged with the first-degree murder of Jason Kossatz, 42, and the attempted murder of two others at the Galaxy Motel on Colborne Street on Feb. 8, 2020.

He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 13 years.

“It was a fair offer from the Crown,” said Idrish’s lawyer, Asgar Manek.

According to an agreed statement of facts presented in court Wednesday, Idrish and his longtime friend, Roger Van Every, went to the motel because Van Every thought he was being cut out of the take from a home invasion he had set up but had not participated in.

In the motel room, both men pulled out handguns but Van Every’s firearm is thought to have misfired, said the statement

Idrish shot Kossatz in the head, Peter McKendrick, 26, in the neck and Jordan McNeil, 25, in the chest.

The shooters ran to a waiting car and were driven away.

Police found Kossatz dead of his injuries. McKendrick was paralyzed due to his wounds. He was left a quadriplegic and, more than a year after the shooting, died of pneumonia.

McNeil was treated and released from hospital. He was not “a co-operative witness,” according to the Crown.

Two others involved that night – Matthew Mehlenbacher and Megan Nicolaidis – were initially charged with accessory to murder after the fact but pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. Mehlenbacher has since died.

Manek said that his client could have been successful at trial, which was scheduled for July, but, if found guilty, he risked a life sentence with no parole for 25 years.

According to information read in court, Van Every arranged for a home invasion robbery on Morton Avenue on Feb. 8, 2020.

Four men – McNeil, Mehlenbacher, McKendrick and Kossatz – were to rob the home. They were driven to Morton Avenue by Nicolaidis, who was being paid to act as Van Every’s driver.

After the home invasion, Nicolaidis was supposed to drive the four to Van Every but, instead, they told her to drive to the Galaxy Motel, which she did.

Nicolaidis then picked up Idrish and Van Every, and drove them to the motel at about 3 am

“(Van Every) and Idrish planned to attend the Galaxy Motel with guns to show the group who was boss,” said assistant Crown attorney Alex Burns.

While Nicolaidis stayed with the car and Mehlenbacher was directed to return to the vehicle, Idrish and Van Every entered the room, exchanged angry words and the shooting began.

Nicolaidis later told police she heard gunshots and, when Idrish and Van Every returned to her vehicle, Idrish took credit for the shooting.

After Mehlenbacher overdosed on drugs later on the day of the shooting, Nicolaidis told a Hamilton police officer: “I think I was involved in a murder last night.”

Idrish was arrested in London on Feb. 14, 2020, and, six days later, Van Every was arrested on the Nipissing First Nation in northern Ontario.

Justice Peter Sweeny gave Idrish to life sentence for second-degree murder and a concurrent seven-year sentence for the attempted murder of McKendrick.

With credit for time served in custody awaiting trial, Idrish has 10 years to serve before being eligible to apply for parole.

But Idrish still faces charges in the first-degree murder of David Stevens, 46, in Hamilton 10 days before the Brantford motel shooting. In that case, he is believed Stevens was an innocent victim after another person in the same rooming house was targeted.

Van Every is charged with first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. He is set to go to trial in July.

Seven months before the motel shooting, Van Every’s parents, Larry Reynolds and Lynn Van Every, were killed by a masked gunman at their Brantford home on July 19, 2019.

Seven men were eventually arrested and charged with murder or conspiracy to commit murder in that case.

Kareem Zedan, 25, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for manslaughter while Terrell Philbert, 23, Thomy Baez-Eusebio, 24, and Dylan Alridge, 25, each recently pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit an indictable offense with a firearm. All four men are from the Toronto area.

Philbert was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison while Alridge and Baez-Eusebio were given sentences of 30 and 29 months already served in custody.

The cases against three others – Salloum Jassem, Malik Mbuyi and Nathan Howes – continue to move through the courts.

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