Nearly two years after a Calgary mother was killed in a gas-and-dash hit-and-run, the trial for the man accused in the case is underway.
Joshua Mitchell is charged with the second-degree murder of Maryam Rashidi.
Rashidi was working as a gas attendant at a northwest Calgary Centex gas station on June 7, 2015 when she was killed.
“It was her fourth shift and she was already proving to be a dedicated employee,” Crown prosecutor Jonathan Hak told the jury Monday.
“Unbeknownst to her, it was to be her last shift,” Hak said.
The Crown’s theory is Mitchell went to the gas station with the specific intent to steal gas.
The jury was shown surveillance video of the moments leading up to Rashidi being run over.
The video shows the passenger of a Ford F-350 filling up, then minutes later the truck is seen leaving the Centex.
From CCTV video taken inside of the gas station, Rashidi is seen looking on the computer, then rushing outside.
From yet another camera angle, Rashidi is seen running after a truck into the nearby Home Depot parking lot.
The manager of the Centex, Shamsuddin Laiwalla, testified he heard Rashidi yell for him. He said he ran from the back room and saw a transaction on the computer for pump No. 10.
“$113 if I’m not mistaken,” he said. A copy of that receipt was also shown to the jury.
The prosecution alleges Mitchell had been driving a stolen Ford F-350 truck for several days.
“In his quest to get away, the defendant would cause Maryam devastating injuries; injuries that would result in her death two days later,” Hak told the jury.
“Many witnesses saw what then unfolded,” Hak said “Maryam went around to the front of the truck and put her hands up.”
READ MORE: Calgary gas-and-dash death raises questions, renews calls for new law
Hak said Rashidi climbed onto the front bumper and held on to the truck’s hood to get her point across.
“The defendant jerked the truck forward to try and get her off,” he said. “At that point, the defendant accelerated hard over her body.”
It’s alleged Mitchell then took off at a high rate of speed.
“I had a sense that I should pay attention…there seemed to be a lot of chaos,” witness Angela Reece testified. “It was a frantic situation.”
Reece told court she saw a woman get onto the front of the hood of the vehicle.
“I was trying to get the woman’s attention…I was yelling at her, screaming at her…I said, ‘come back here; get away from that truck,'” Reece said. “I had a sense that it was a very dangerous situation.”
The witness said the vehicle took off driving west on 16 Avenue at high speed, and said she didn’t watch what happened next.
“I turned. I anticipated a bad outcome. I turned screaming and I heard a sound like a branch cracking,” Reece said. “It was an awful sound.”
Court heard she later saw the woman on the road, and ran to try and get help.
Rashidi, 35, was rushed to hospital, but never regained consciousness. She later died of her injuries in hospital.
Her organs were collected for donation.
Rashidi had come to Canada from Iran with her husband, Ahmad Nourani Shallo, and their six-year-old son, Koorosh, to build a new life.
READ MORE: ‘She was the best thing I had’: Husband mourns hit-and-run victim
The couple worked as engineers, but were both laid off from Calgary oil and gas companies. Desperate to support her family, Rashidi took a job at a gas station.
Mitchell, 22, is also charged with possession of stolen property (truck), theft of fuel and hit and run.
Nourani Shallo is not attending the trial, but told Global News Monday: “My greatest wish is no family is confronted with a tragedy, especially losing a mother who loves her kid.”
“Nothing is worse than looking at a little child staring at his friends with their moms,” he continued.
“There is no day that goes by that I don’t wish I could see Maryam again,” he added. “After all this time, I still miss her.”
The trial is scheduled for two weeks.
The jury is made up of seven women and five men.
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