Stabbing of hotel worker was ‘planned and deliberate murder,’ prosecutor says

TORONTO – The trial of a man accused in the deadly stabbing of a woman in a downtown Toronto laneway nearly three years ago has begun with Crown prosecutors calling the incident a “planned and deliberate murder.”

Adonay Zekarias is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 55-year-old Nighisti Semret and has pleaded not guilty.

READ MORE: Man charged with murder of Nighisti Semret, police still searching for motive

In an opening statement to the jury hearing the case, Crown prosecutor Meghan Scott says Semret was killed on a dark, rainy morning in October 2012 as she walked home from a night shift at a nearby hotel.

Scott says a man stalking Semret attacked her in a laneway, stabbing her seven times and badly injuring himself in the process.

Scott says Semret, a mother of three, fought for her life – the blood of her attacker was found under her fingernails – but died of her wounds in hospital less than an hour after the stabbing.

While the motive for the attack remains unclear, Scott says Zekarias and Semret knew each other – they were both refugees from Eritrea, and had once lived in the same refugee shelter for a time.

“We do not have to prove to you why he killed her,” Scott told the jury.

“When all the pieces are put together, the puzzle should reflect that this is Adonay Zekarias’s planned and deliberate murder of Nighisti Semret.”

Zekarias, who is following the trial with the help of a translator, listened closely to the proceedings as he sat in the prisoner’s box.