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North Vancouver axe murderer loses appeal

The B.C. Court of Appeal has upheld the first-degree murder conviction of a North Vancouver man who was found guilty of killing a fellow drug dealer with a hatchet.
victim
Ronak Wagad

The B.C. Court of Appeal has upheld the first-degree murder conviction of a North Vancouver man who was found guilty of killing a fellow drug dealer with a hatchet.

In a decision handed down Wednesday, a panel of three appeal court judges rejected Babak Najafi-Chaghabouri's appeal of his conviction, ruling there was "sufficiently reliable evidence" that Najafi-Chaghabouri was the person who killed Ronak "Ronny" Wagad on Feb. 23, 2009.

Justice Daphne Smith wrote she was satisfied "his intended actions in striking the victim on the head and neck with a hatchet were an essential, substantial and integral cause of the victim's death."

In 2012, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Barry Davies sentenced Najafi-Chaghabouri to a mandatory term of jail for life with no possibility of parole for 25 years after finding him guilty of the murder.

Davies sentenced a second man, Charles Anthony Leslie, 34, to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 16 years after

finding him guilty of seconddegree murder in the killing. The sentences follow a lengthy trial in which both men pointed to the other as responsible for the gruesome killing.

Davies ruled both men were ultimately responsible for Wagad's death, but Najafi-Chaghabouri was the one who wielded the hatchet for the fatal blows after Leslie refused to go through with the killing.

Najafi-Chaghabouri killed Wagad with a hatchet at a remote site near the Fraser River just one week after winning an appeal of a deportation order.

Key evidence in the trial came from Travis Winterlik, an accomplice of Najafi-Chaghabouri and Leslie, who helped lead police to Wagad's remains and testified in exchange for immunity from prosecution. But Winterlik did not witness who had actually carried out the killing.

Ali Reza Alandari, who was Najafi-Chaghabouri's roommate in North Vancouver, testified that Najafi-Chaghabouri confessed that he'd killed Wagad, saying he had "hit the man in the head with an axe."

Another witness, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, described how Najafi-Chaghabouri said he'd made Wagad kneel on the ground in front of the car before taking the hatchet to his head.

In appealing his conviction, lawyers for Najafi-Chaghabouri questioned the reliability of testimony given by those witnesses, noting all were drug-addicted and had credibility problems.

In upholding the conviction, the appeal court ultimately found the critical parts of their evidence were backed up either by independent physical evidence or other testimony.