The man who killed a mom and her daughter outside a southeast Edmonton school was considered a maximum security threat, even behind bars, Global News has learned.
Muorater Arkangelo Mashar was 33 when he was shot by police following that final crime earlier this month outside Crawford Plains School in Mill Woods.
The attack on Friday, May 5 claimed the lives of 35-year-old mother Carolann Robillard and her 11-year-old daughter Sara Miller, who preferred to go by the name Jayden.
Court records show Mashar had a lengthy criminal history.
His list of victims was long. Global News tracked a few of them down, including Ian Draper.
Draper noticed Mashar on his Edmonton Transit Service bus while it was driving through downtown in November 2020.
“The guy was acting strange for the duration of the bus ride,” Draper said.
“He was constantly changing seats in the bus, at least four or five times that I noticed, and approached the driver a couple times during his seat swapping.
“I just thought maybe he was under the influence of drugs or something.”
When the majority of passengers got off the bus near the Westin, Draper said the stranger suddenly bear-sprayed him.
He said the bus filled with the irritant, impacting the bus driver, as well.
That offence earned Mashar 80 days in jail.
A year before killing Robillard and Miller, Mashar was also convicted of two counts of assault — one of them on a 12-year-old boy.
The child’s mom said Nesta Bailey had been riding the LRT on his way to school, when a stranger randomly got in his face and yelled something profane at him.
Upset by the interaction, Aimee Guilbault said her son tried to run away at his stop, rushing to the stairs — but the man followed him and started attacking him, throwing punches.
The child cowered in fear.
“He grabbed the railing, crouched down and protected his head, had his hoodie on. The man again punched him four more times in the back of the head.”
Then, a bystander came to Nesta’s defence.
“The man ran up the stairs and began to assault another random person,” Guilbault explained.
The assailant was captured by security, and later arrested by police.
Guilbault said her son was physically ok — but mentally shaken.
“The whole interaction with this person was scary.”
After Robillard and Miller were stabbed to death in Mill Woods, Guilbault learned their killer was the same man who hurt her son: Mashar.
Court records show in February 2023, Mashar was sentenced to nine months in prison for the attack on Nesta and another victim.
But three months later he was free to re-offend — this time fatally. Guilbault couldn’t believe it.
“It’s heartbreaking and I just cried all day about it because it happened and it shouldn’t have happened,” she lamented.
“It could have happened in my case too, and I’m just grateful it didn’t.”
She thinks the only reason Nesta wasn’t hurt more, was that Mashar didn’t use a weapon in that particular attack.
Explaining the connection to her son was difficult.
“He didn’t believe it at first, when I told him. He was like: ‘That guy shouldn’t be out yet.’ I said ‘I know’ and that’s the frustrating part and the scary part.”
Guilbault said things need to change in the legal system to protect innocent people from repeat, violent offenders.
Mashar’s aggression dates back to 2009 — his first criminal conviction for a trio of store robberies.
Parole documents show he threatened to beat a video store employee with a steel padlock, tried to stab a convenience store worker with a screwdriver and slapped a dollar store cashier.
He was quoted as saying, “Robbing people is better than making eight dollars an hour.”
Even at the age of 21, during his first period of incarceration, he caused problems.
“You have been displaying negative behaviour since your arrival to the institution,” parole documents read.
Mashar came to Canada from Sudan in 1997, when he was a child, and was reported to have five siblings.
He told officials he’d graduated high school but they found no evidence of that. They did, however, uncover he’d been suspended four times: for drinking, calling names and twice for fighting.
He couldn’t hold down a job, either.
“Your employment history is sporadic and unstable… you have been fired from every job you ever held.”
Mashar allegedly told the parole board he committed the robberies because he wanted to be in prison to get help for his substance abuse and depression.
The board said he laughed while describing his crimes and denied his parole.
“While you’re pretty sure you scared them, you did not appear very remorseful while describing the impact of your offence on your victims.”
In 2014, Mashar offended again — this time his victim was simply waiting for the bus.
“You were armed with a knife and stabbed your victim once in the upper back. You then fled on foot. Your victim’s injuries included a punctured aorta and a laceration to his spinal cord,” the documents read.
For this crime, he was sentenced to nearly four years in prison.
“Your unprovoked attack on a stranger very nearly resulted in a loss of life and this violent behaviour did not stop here.”
His record shows Mashar once again was difficult to deal with behind bars.
“You have issues with integrating with other offenders… You demonstrate problematic behaviour. You have assaulted a correctional officer and are disrespectful to staff,” it reads.
He also assaulted other inmates, on at least three occasions: once with a rock in a sock, once with his fists, and once with his feces.
A psychiatrist found Mashar had “a grandiose sense of self-importance… a sense of entitlement, a tendency towards interpersonal exploitation and a lack of empathy.”
He was diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder, ADHD and Tourette’s Syndrome.
Mashar was labelled a maximum security offender. It was noted he was at an elevated risk to reoffend.
In July 2018, the parole board even revoked his statutory release, when he tested positive for using methamphetamine.
“The Board has determined that your risk rose to an undue level and that you are no longer manageable in the community. Statutory release is revoked.”
Despite all of his crimes, he was still free in the community — able to end of the life of an innocent child and her mother in a vicious attack that stunned Edmontonians.
The funeral for Robillard and Miller is scheduled for Wednesday.
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