The deceased
EDMONTON - An Edmonton man was convicted of second-degree murder Monday for helping hold down the legs of Emmanuel Amoah, 19, while a gun-toting youth strangled him.
Mahamed Ali Abdulle, 22, was also convicted of offering an indignity to a body for concealing Amoah's body in an isolated wooded area under a pile of grass and leaves.
Abdulle bowed his head in the prisoner's box as Justice Beverley Browne ruled he was guilty for his actions of holding Amoah's legs down as he "struggled to escape" from his attackers.
The Crown had sought a conviction for first-degree murder, but Browne said she had a reasonable doubt about evidence suggesting Abdulle was the mastermind and had planned the killing as retaliation for Amoah robbing him.
Abdulle will be handed an automatic life sentence, but a sentencing hearing was set for Jan. 4 to determine how much time he must serve before being eligible for parole.
Outside court, Abdulle's father called it a very sad day.
"The family is not happy today. We are shocked," said Ali Farah. "Today we are very sad. Everybody is crying."
Farah said Abdulle was one of 10 children from a "good family" and he had never told them what he was doing.
He also expressed sympathy for Amoah's family.
"I am sorry for the dead boy's family," said Farah. "He was like my boy."
During Abdulle's trial, the Crown's main witness - a youth earlier convicted of murder for being an accomplice in the slaying - testified a group of males had gone to the wooded area to supposedly do some target practice.
Then, once Amoah was tricked into handing over his gun, he said a youth - who is also charged with first-degree murder in the killing - beat up the victim and then fired at the fleeing teen with a shotgun before chasing him down and clubbing him with the shotgun.
The witness testified Amoah had his feet and hands bound and said the youth held the shotgun to Amoah's head and then punched, kicked and stomped him.
He said Abdulle held down Amoah's legs while the youth strangled him with a bandanna-belt and then helped hide the victim by covering him in grass and leaves.
Abdulle took the witness stand in his own defence and testified he was at the scene of the killing, but did not participate in anything connected to the crime.
Mahamed Abdulle, prior to the second-degree murder conviction, was serving a 5-year jail sentence for being the getaway driver of another man who killed this person in 2010.
involved in 2 murders 
Too bad Canada doesnt have the death penalty, because he deserves to be executed.
..iam pissed about the sentencing though i was hoping for execution 
