The Crown will not appeal a judge’s decision to acquired in Sarnia man of manslaughter in the death of his neighbour, whose lifeless body was found at the bottom of a staircase leading to their apartments.
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Following a spread-out trial that started last fall, Timothy Nahmabin was found not guilty on May 22 in the Oct. 25, 2020 death of Nada Court, 69. Nahmabin’s lawyer, Ken Marley, said at the time his client was relieved and got his life back following the verdict – he’d been living on strict lease terms – while prosecutor Aniko Coughlan couldn’t say if there would be an appeal since she was still reflecting on Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia’s decision.
The Crown had 30 days to file a notice of appeal based on any potential legal errors. But with that deadline now past, a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Attorney General confirmed there will be no appeal.
“After a thorough review and careful consideration, the Crown has decided not to appeal the acquittal,” Keesha Seaton wrote via email.
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Marley said he couldn’t immediately reach his client to get a reaction. “But I’m certain that, when he receives the news, he will be relieved to know that this is all over,” he wrote in an email.
Nahmabin declined to comment at the courthouse last month following the end of his trial.
Court, who was found dead at the bottom of an eight-step staircase in the building on Colborne Road, near a door with cracked glass, died of significant blunt-force trauma to her head and neck, the trial heard. Her death was initially ruled accidental by police.
But Nahmabin, who lived across the hall from her at the time, voluntarily went to Sarnia police headquarters one week later and allegedly confessed to harming his neighbor. Nahmabin was charged that day with second-degree murder.
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Later reduced to manslaughter, Nahmabin pleaded not guilty on Oct. 10, 2023, starting an 11-day trial and a voir dire, or a trial within a trial, with lawyers on both sides arguing some evidence should be included or excluded.
Carroccia, who heard the trial and voir dire without a jury, ruled in January Nahmabin’s Charter rights were violated. As a result, everything he said to police about allegedly harming his neighbor during a brief but key exchange in the lobby of headquarters on Oct. 31, 2020 was excluded as evidence in his trial.
She made a second ruling in January, this time in favor of the Crown, allowing statements made by Court to other witnesses, such as her friends and neighbors and her counsellor, about Nahmabin and her fear of him to be included as evidence to establish Court’s state of mind, but not Nahmabin’s, and an exception to the court’s hearsay rule.
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Following these decisions, Coughlan and Marley made their closing arguments in March, leaving Nahmabin’s fate in Carroccia’s hands. When the judge returned two months later, she said she found the Crown had not met its obligation to prove the manslaughter charge beyond a reasonable doubt as she was not satisfied on the totality of the evidence.
Nahmabin is the second person to be acquitted of a homicide charge in Sarnia in recent months after a 54-year-old Mooretown-area man was found not guilty by a jury in the death of his common-law wife, but the Crown is appealing that acquittal and wants a new trial.
Within days of Nahmabin’s acquittal, a 38-year-old Sarnia man was found guilty of second-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of a Sarnia senior in his home and his co-accused was sentenced to seven years for manslaughter.
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