HALIFAX - A Nova Scotia judge has convicted a 17-year-old boy of manslaughter for his role in the stabbing death of a Halifax high school student during a brawl last year in a parking garage.
The offender, whose identity is protected from publication, was one of four teens charged with second-degree murder in the death of 16-year-old Ahmad Maher Al Marrach on April 22, 2024.
Earlier this year, a Crown prosecutor told the 17-year-old's trial that the charge would be reduced to manslaughter because there wasn’t enough evidence to secure a conviction on the more serious offence.
On Tuesday, provincial youth court Judge Elizabeth Buckle decided the accused was guilty of manslaughter. The teen’s week-long sentencing hearing starts Oct. 20.Â
“The Crown has maintained its notice to seek an adult penalty,†Crown attorney Terry Nickerson said in an interview. “Manslaughter has a wide range of sentencing options. But it is potentially a life imprisonment offence.â€
The victim was a well-liked student at Citadel High School in Halifax. He arrived in Canada with his parents and six siblings in 2016 after escaping the war in Syria.
During the 17-year-old’s trial, the Crown argued he was responsible for organizing a one-on-one fight with Al Marrach near the Halifax Shopping Centre. Court heard the two were locked in a dispute over a girl.
At the start of the trial, the Crown alleged the accused had invited three other teens to join the fight, knowing the ensuing brawl could lead to Al Marrach’s death. The defence and Crown agreed the 17-year-old was not the one who stabbed Al Marrach as the other teens joined the assault.
In January, a Halifax-area youth pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the case. The 15-year-old was supposed to stand trial the following month. According to an agreed statement of facts, four teens met at a downtown Halifax shopping mall where the stabber, then 14, stole a large kitchen knife from a discount store in anticipation of joining the fight with Al Marrach.
The group then took a bus to a parkade in the city's west end, where one of the teens started fighting with Al Marrach, who was a Grade 10 student. "All four were armed with knives when they arrived at the bus terminal and walked to parkade," the statement says.
"During the ensuing commotion, (one of the teens) fell to the ground and (the accused) stepped towards Ahmad, lifted his right hand up above his shoulder and plunged his large knife into the centre of Ahmad's chest," the court document says. Al Marrach was pronounced dead in hospital later that day.
The statement of facts says the accused "did mean to cause Ahmad bodily harm that he knew was likely to cause his death."
The 15-year-old’s sentencing hearing begins this Friday and is expected to resume on Sept. 12.
Meanwhile, another 17-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl both pleaded guilty to manslaughter in October. The pair admitted they knew they would be part of a group assault that could cause serious harm.
The girl, who told court she was in a relationship with the teen who stabbed the victim, was sentenced in April to three months in a youth detention centre. The boy will be sentenced Aug. 1.
This report by °µÍø½ûÇø was first published July 22, 2025.
