WARNING: This story contains disturbing details
Kia Ebrahimian should serve life in prison, with no chance of parole for at least 15 years, for the murder of three members of his family, Crown prosecutors and defense lawyers agreed in New Westminster Supreme Court on Friday.
Lawyers laid out the circumstances of both the crime and the killer in a sentencing hearing on Dec. 16, before the judge heard emotional victim impact statements.
Ebrahimian pleaded guilty to three counts of second degree murder on Oct. 3, in the 2020 killings of his mother Tatiana Bazyar, BazyarB次元官网网址檚 common-law husband Francesco Zangrilli, and EbrahimianB次元官网网址檚 brother Befrin.
Relatives of the victims, including TatianaB次元官网网址檚 brother Armand Bazyar, ZangrilliB次元官网网址檚 brother Giampiero Zangrilli, BefrinB次元官网网址檚 girlfriend Kiko Kung, and BefrinB次元官网网址檚 childhood friend Ahna Whiteman, were among those who spoke.
Whiteman spoke of growing up with Befrin, who she knew as Medea, and described him as being like a sibling to her.
B次元官网网址淚t breaks my heart that IB次元官网网址檒l never get to meet Befrin, her true identity, which she found later in life,B次元官网网址 Whiteman said.
Kung broke down in tears as she delivered her statement.
B次元官网网址淚 grew up thinking something was wrong with me, and I was unloveable,B次元官网网址 Kung said. That changed when she became friends with Befrin.
B次元官网网址淲ith him, I didnB次元官网网址檛 have to pretend to be something else,B次元官网网址 she said.
She described how they texted multiple times a day, until June 13.
B次元官网网址淲hen he didnB次元官网网址檛 respond to me for hours, I knew something was wrong.B次元官网网址
She went to check on him at his home, and turned the corner to see the house gutted by fire.
B次元官网网址淚B次元官网网址檝e lost my best friend in the world,B次元官网网址 Kung said.
ZangrilliB次元官网网址檚 family watched the proceedings via a live video from the Canadian embassy in Rome.
GiampieroB次元官网网址檚 impact statement, read to the court by Crown lawyer Sonya Bertrand, spoke of how their mother still goes to visit her sonB次元官网网址檚 grave every day.
B次元官网网址淗ow can one accept the death of oneB次元官网网址檚 own son?B次元官网网址 Giampiero wrote.
Crown prosecutor Michael Fortino summarized the facts of the case for Justice Murray Blok.
Before the June 13, 2020 attack, Ebrahimian had no criminal record, and his only interactions with police had been when he was at risk of self-harm.
He had moved back in with his mother, step-father, and brother in March of that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
B次元官网网址淭here had been strife in the home for some time,B次元官网网址 said Fortino.
Both Fortino and defense lawyer Donna Turcot painted a picture of Ebrahimian as a young man who was socially isolated, with few or no friends, and who had dropped out of school and only worked a few jobs.
He was angry with his mother, and repeatedly clashed with his brother Befrin, a trans man, using transphobic language.
Late in the afternoon of June 13, Zangrilli phoned the non-emergency number of the Langley RCMP. The call would capture the sounds of the murders, as Ebrahimian attacked his family with knives, starting with Zangrilli, then his mother, and then Befrin.
After that, he doused the lower floor of the familyB次元官网网址檚 Wakefield Drive home with gasoline, let out his dogs, and set the building ablaze. He headed back up to his second floor bedroom, and only survived because three neighbours put up a ladder and rescued him after they noticed smoke.
RCMP, alerted to a domestic incident by the phone call, arrived to find the house already filling with smoke.
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One officer broke a window to gain access to the lower floor and dragged out Zangrilli, and although first responders tried to revive him, he was declared dead at the scene.
The other two bodies would only be discovered by firefighters later.
At the RCMP detachment headquarters, officers noticed an item in EbrahimianB次元官网网址檚 pocket, and fearing it was a weapon, they searched him. They found a large folding knife, still with blood on the blade, and a second knife hung around his neck.
After being hospitalized with suicidal thoughts within 24 hours of the murder, Ebrahimian was charged with murder on July 11, 2020.
HeB次元官网网址檚 been in custody ever since.
Both Crown and the defense said that EbrahimianB次元官网网址檚 mental state is poor, and heB次元官网网址檚 been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
He has attempted suicide multiple times since he was arrested, including ingesting several razor blades, and trying to fling himself off an upper tier in the pre-trial centre where heB次元官网网址檚 been held for the last two years.
B次元官网网址淗e hears his motherB次元官网网址檚 voice,B次元官网网址 said Turcot. B次元官网网址淗e lives in a very, how can I say it, we would see it as a very pitiful existence. He would see it as a painful existence.B次元官网网址
Ebrahimian is currently being given powerful medications to attempt to control his suicidal urges. Turcot asked the judge to recommend he be sent to a medical prison facility rather than Kent Institution, which is the usual first stop for convicted murderers in B.C.
Wearing an orange sweat suit, Ebrahimian entered the courtroom hunched over, and sat almost silently in the prisonerB次元官网网址檚 box during the morning-long hearing. He frequently rocked back and forth.
Asked if he wanted to say anything before the judge passes sentence, he declined through Turcot.
Blok will make his sentencing ruling on Monday, Dec. 19, at 10 a.m.
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