Accused in housemate stabbing has until Monday to decide on testifying

Mohamed Daud Omar, 30, is accused of trying to kill one of his housemates, 33-year-old Sunday Aro, over a car-damage dispute in 2022

Crown prosecutors closed their case in B.C. Supreme Court on Friday. DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

A man representing himself at his trial for attempted murder has been given until Monday to decide whether to testify in his own defence.

Mohamed Daud Omar, 30, is accused of trying to kill one of his housemates, 33-year-old Sunday Aro, over a car-damage dispute in 2022.

After Crown ­prosecutors closed their case in B.C. Supreme Court on Friday, Omar asked Justice Matthew Kirchner, who is presiding over the judge-only trial, if he could choose not to answer questions from lawyers while he was on the stand.

“This is not America, we’re not allowed to plead the Fifth?” Omar asked.

“We don’t have a Fifth Amendment that applies here. In Canada, you have to answer the question,” Kirchner said.

Omar later said he had been watching a lot ofCourt Cam,a popular documentary television series of U.S. court cases.

“It doesn’t happen the way you see it inCourt Cam,” ­Kirchner said.

As part of an extensive back-and-forth that lasted over 30 minutes, Omar also asked the judge under what circumstances a prior conviction could be used against an accused.

“If somebody gets convicted for something, but in the midst of a trial, they are appealing their conviction — could that still be used?” he asked.

Crown prosecutor Paul Cheeseman said that in this ­situation, if Omar decided to testify in the trial, he can not be cross-examined for other offenses that he may been charged with after Feb. 6, 2022.

Aro and another person living in the house at the time have testified that Aro confronted Omar that day in their shared house on Lang Street about damage to another housemate’s car.

The two testified separately that Aro and Omar got into a fight in Omar’s room on the second floor, and Aro was stabbed after he followed Omar down to the ground floor.

Under cross-examination on Wednesday, housemate Qianhe Qian said he saw Aro punch Omar at least twice in the face in Omar’s room, and Omar’s nose began to bleed afterwards.

Omar did not have a chance to explain himself before Aro pushed him, Qian said.

Qian earlier said he did not remember how many punches were thrown in the fight.

Crown prosecutors did not call on Ling Pang, the housemate who had her car damaged, due to scheduling issues that came up after she and her daughter returned to China.

On Thursday, Crown prosecutors called nine police witnesses who described how VicPD secured the scene on Feb. 6, 2022, arrested Omar and collected evidence.

Const. Ben Sawyer and Const. Jordan Deverill noted in their testimonies that they saw Omar with some injuries, including a swollen, bruised face, as he walked up to police officers at the scene.

Const. Christina Harrison, one of the officers who made the arrest, testified that Omar was arrested without incident. “He was calm and I just asked him to keep his hands by his side.”

Harrison said she saw Omar’s body was covered with blood as he walked up.

Retired Sgt. Jonathan Sheldan testified that he found during an examination of Omar in a police cell block that day that Omar had only minor injuries to his body.

What appeared to be blood on Omar’s hands when he conducted the examination likely would have come from another source, Sheldan said.

Two bloody Faberware-branded kitchen blades were found on the ground floor of the house during a search, he said.

The two blades — one serrated, the other not — had broken off from their handles, which were also found inside the house, he said.

One handle was lying on the floor while the other was found in the kitchen garbage, he said.

Sheldan also noted that there were some empty slots in a knife block that was in the kitchen, which contained knives with handles similar to one of the knives found on the ground.

Kirchner reviewed ­evidence from a report ­showing Aro’s DNA was found on a bloody T-shirt worn by Omar at the time of his arrest, and that Aro’s DNA was found on the two knives and on Omar’s hand after his arrest.

Omar told Kirchner his defence has been hamstrung by delays in obtaining bank documents that would suggest he had an alcohol problem around the time of the incident.

Kirchner adjourned the trial early on Friday and ruled that Omar has until Monday morning to call evidence and to decide whether he will testify.

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