Date: Wednesday, 15 August 2018
Adonay Zekarias. Toronto police handout
Adonay Zekarias must wait until he’s 86 before he can apply for parole after a judge sentenced the 46-year-old Eritrean refugee Tuesday for murdering an innocent, hard-working roommate.
Zekarias savagely killed and dismembered Righat Ghirmay in May 2013 to prevent her from implicating him in the murder of another Eritrean woman — Nighisti Semret — in October 2012, said Justice Michael Brown.
Zekarias, who is already serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years for the October 2012 first-degree murder of Semret, was found guilty earlier this year of second-degree murder in Ghirmay’s killing.
Rigat Ghirmay, 28. Toronto police
Brown ordered that his parole ineligibility period of 20 years run consecutively to the 25 years already on the books, so Zekarias cannot seek his freedom until 2058 when his estimated natural life may be over, said Brown.
Semret, like Zekarias, was a refugee claimant who stayed at Soujourn House and she helped him apply for and receive refugee status as he was fleeing religious persecution in his homeland, said Brown.
He convicted Zekarias of second-degree murder and one count of indignity to a human body for the death of Ghirmay, 28. She was his roommate who literally cleaned his wounds after he fatally stabbed Semret, 55, a downtown hotel maid supervisor, as she walking to her downtown home in October 2012.
The judge said Zekarias who killed and dismembered Ghirmay to “subvert the course of justice for his own self preservation” to evade prosecution for Semret’s unsolved murder.
“This is a very tragic case as two innocent hard-working women who came from Eritrea to Canada for a better life were both murdered by a fellow countryman,” said Crown attorney Mary Humphrey.
“After they both helped Adonay Zekarias, he brutally murdered both of them within a seven-month time period. This was the ultimate betrayal,” said Humphrey.
“The court imposed a 20-year consecutive parole ineligibility period so Adonay Zekarias cannot apply for parole until he’s 86,” said Humphrey.
“This substantial sentence will send a clear message to multiple murderers. We hope this sentence brings some comfort to the victims’ families, knowing justice was served today.”
Double killer must wait until he's 86 for parole
