Man convicted of four counts of attempted murder sentenced to 18 years behind bars

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This article was published 01/12/2021 (1643 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 27-year-old Winnipeg man convicted of four counts of attempted murder following a flurry of shootings that sent his intended target and three innocent bystanders to hospital has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Haben Weldekidan, an Ethiopian refugee, faces deportation upon completion of the custodial portion of his sentence.

“Four victims were struck by gunfire in what must be described as senseless and unprovoked attacks,” Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey said of the March 31, 2016, shootings.

No clear motive was ever provided to court for what sparked the violence, McKelvey said.

“Shots were fired, at virtually point-blank range, at unnamed and vulnerable individuals,” she said. “At best, what occurred was gratuitous violence in a residential setting — an extreme threat to public safety.”

McKelvey convicted Weldekidan last summer following a trial in which none of his victims were able to identify him as their attacker in court.

McKelvey ruled she could rely on police statements three of the young men made from their hospital beds naming Weldekidan as the man who shot them outside a Hazel Dell Avenue house party.

“The fact that they could not (identify Weldekidan) at trial might be a consequence of the passage of time or other reasons,” McKelvey said at the time. “However, that does not mean that their statements were not reliable or an accurate accounting of what occurred.”

Court heard evidence Weldekidan had gotten into an argument with one of the victims at Bar Red Sea on Portage Avenue before ending up at the same East Kildonan house party sometime around 4 a.m.

In a video statement provided to police nine days later, while recovering in hospital, the man said Weldekidan, who had been a friend for about six years, motioned him to come outside for what he believed was going to be a one-on-one fight. Once in the back lane, Weldekidan pulled out a handgun and shot the man in the stomach.

In their individual video statements to police, two other victims said they were shot multiple times by the accused; one when he came to the first man’s aid, another as he sat on the backyard deck.

A fourth man was grazed by a bullet as he drove the first victim to hospital.

At trial, the three victims who provided video statements claimed to have little memory of the night they were shot or any memory of talking to police.

Weldekidan faced two trials on the same charges. The first ended in an acquittal after a judge ruled the video statements of the three victims who identified Weldekidan as the shooter were not sufficiently reliable to be admitted as evidence. The Manitoba Court of Appeal later ordered a new trial.

Prosecutors had urged McKelvey to sentence Weldekidan to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years. McKelvey said case law supporting a life sentence involves more serious injuries and offenders with lengthier and more violent records.

“The 18-year sentence will hopefully facilitate (Weldekidan’s) rehabilitation,” she said. “(Weldekidan) is fortunate that the victims in this case were not critically injured or he would, in all likelihood be facing the imposition of a life sentence.”

Weldekidan received credit for time served, reducing his remaining sentence to 13 1/2 years.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca