A British Columbia Supreme Court jury has found Ibrahim Ali guilty of first-degree murder for the death of a 13-year-old girl whose body was found in a Burnaby park in July 2017.
The jury came back with its decision minutes after asking the judge to clarify the differences between first- and second-degree murder and manslaughter.
Justice Lance Bernard told them murder would mean Ali deliberately caused the girl’s death or meant to cause her bodily harm and knew that this was likely to cause death.
Bernard said it would qualify as first-degree murder if it happened while Ali committed or attempted to commit a sexual assault against the girl, whose name is protected by a publication ban.
Ali had little reaction to the verdict and those in the packed courtroom were quiet as the verdict was read out.
Bernard told jurors in his instructions on Thursday that the case against Ali was circumstantial, requiring them to infer that Ali sexually assaulted and strangled the girl in Burnaby’s Central Park in July 2017.
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