Adonay Zekarias sentenced to life in prison in Cabbagetown murder

The man found guilty of first-degree murder in the 2012 stabbing death of a Toronto hotel worker in Cabbagetown has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Nighisti Semret, 55, was walking home after an overnight shift on a rainy morning in October when she was attacked in a laneway by a man who stabbed her seven times, the court heard during the trial.

Semret, the mother of three, was stabbed repeatedly in her back, her chest, her thigh and her arm, the court heard.

During the sentencing hearing on Friday, the Crown read a letter from Semret’s son, David Ntahobali, who said his mother was “the steel, the scaffolding that held the family together.”

“The cruel death of my mother is something that goes beyond comprehension and will take many a year to process,” he wrote.

“[The] chapter it seems will never close until we know the reasons why the events of that morning transpired. As long as that remains a mystery, there is no real closure for us, no real end to that emotional turbulence.”

Read David’s full victim impact statement below, or click here for a mobile-friendly version.

 

During the trial, the court heard Semret and Zekarias were both were refugees from the North African country of Eritrea, had once lived in the same refugee shelter, and went to English lessons together for a time.

Immigration records also showed they were members of the same church in Eritrea.

“There is nothing that I have done; there is nothing that I did,” Zekarias said at the sentencing hearing on Friday.

Zekarias said Semret “was nothing but a friend” to him, adding “there is nothing I can feel,” and that he plans to appeal.

Justice Ian Nordheimer said Semret came from a troubled part of the world and was a hard-working member of society, but in an unkind twist of fate she was murdered by a fellow countryman.

Nordheimer said “we may never know why this murder happened,” adding that “it becomes more concerning when there are no answers.”

Jurors who heard the nearly five-week trial took just about four hours to reach their guilty verdict on Tuesday.

With files from Marianne Boucher

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