Warning: Details in this article may be disturbing and triggering to readers.
The Montreal-area man accused of first-degree murder following the January 2022 abduction of his former girlfriend from a home in Wasaga Beach, Ont., has accepted a plea deal.
Mohamad Lilo, 38, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kidnap Elnaz Hajtamiri, in exchange for murder charges against him being dropped by the Crown and a joint proposal of a four-year sentence, which was accepted by Justice Michelle Furst.
Lilo pleaded guilty Monday to working with others to carry out Hajtamiri’s kidnapping on the night of Jan. 12, 2022, from the home along Trailwood Place.
The Richmond Hill, Ont., woman had been in hiding from Lilo with family members in Wasaga Beach, following an earlier assault with a frying pan at her Richmond Hill parking garage.
Elnaz, investigators said, was kidnapped by three men posing as police officers with a fake warrant for her arrest. Hajtamiri had been dragged barefoot through the snow and loaded into a stolen white Lexus SUV. Loved ones have not seen or heard from Hajtamiri since, and police believe Hajtamiri is dead. She was 37 at the time of the abduction.
About a dozen charged
Lilo was found guilty of aggravated assault by a Barrie, Ont., jury last June and sentenced Friday to time served, having spent nearly four years behind bars, credited with six years in pre-sentence custody under lockdowns.
The court heard Lilo hired several men to watch and attack Hajtamiri. About a dozen men and women have been charged in the case. The majority of the accused had their charges either stayed or withdrawn by the Crown. One man, Sukhpreet Singh, remains in custody after he was arrested in San Antonio, Texas, by immigration officers.
Two of the attackers from the December 2021 parking garage assault were arrested in Edmonton months later while caught stealing Ford F-150 pickup trucks. Lilo, police said, ran a shipping container business and worked with Hajtamiri, who told police she feared Lilo after he refused to accept a breakup.
Scorned lover: Crown
The Crown characterized Lilo as an obsessed and scorned lover, dumped by Hajtamiri months earlier. He stalked her, hiring private investigators and members of gangs, including car thieves, to track, scare and hurt Hajtamiri.
As part of an agreed statement of facts, Lilo admitted to assisting others in locating Hajtamiri, who had broken up with him. The court heard Hajtamiri knew about Lilo’s involvement in the shipping of stolen vehicles and was viewed by Lilo’s associates as a liability who needed to be dealt with to prevent her from coming forward to police about the criminal organization.
Police believe the frying pan attack was a failed abduction when a passerby intervened.
The court heard Hajtamiri’s SUV had tracking devices on it and several men were promised about $50,000 for their involvement in her surveillance in the weeks leading up to her abduction.
‘I wish you an eternity of suffering’
Hajtamiri’s family provided a victim impact statement read to the court after Lilo was sentenced for the aggravated assault.
Her loved ones were saying: “Mr. Lilo, we feel like you are soulless and have absolutely no remorse…you sit here with your expensive legal team hoping for a second chance to flee and do it all over again.”
They were telling him: “I hope you never close your eyes again without seeing her face. I wish you an eternity of suffering, remembering this gentle, loving woman laying there on the ground terrified, bleeding, dying because of you.”
They were telling the court: “Will there be more victims after her? This man cannot be rehabilitated. The evil runs through his blood and bones.”
They added: “You never succeeded in your quest to control Elnaz. You are a failure. You were never enough for her. She was good and you were evil. She never loved you. She never returned to you despite you begging and you were never worthy of her affection.”
Lilo apologized to the Hajtamiri family and the court before his expected sentencing by Justice Michelle Fuerst.
The plea deal was struck two weeks shy of what would’ve been Elnaz Hajtamiri’s 42nd birthday.
