'Who hired you?': Crown suggests murder-for-hire in cross-exam of accused killer
Nakita Baron, 31, died in shooting while husband Talal Fouani survived
"Who hired you?"
That question from prosecutor Hyatt Mograbee was one of her repeated suggestions that Michael Arnold shot two people as part of a murder-for-hire execution, targeting a man who'd recently been implicated in money laundering for organized crime.
But despite contradictions between Arnold's version of events and the Crown's audio and video evidence, the confessed killer stuck with his story that the shooting was a spur-of-the-moment decision made in a moment of panic during a failed carjacking,
Arnold, 36, is on trial for the first-degree of Nakita Baron and the attempted murder of her husband, Talal Fouani. The couple was shot as they backed out of their driveway in August 2022.
The Crown's theory is that Fouani, who had been recently charged with money laundering connected to organized crime, was the intended target and that Baron was eliminated to reduce the risk she could identify the shooter.
Arnold is an admitted career criminal from Edmonton.
He testified that on a trip to Calgary, he spotted Fouani's Bentley in the southwest suburban neighbourhood of Evergreen and ultimately made a decision to steal it.
Security video from the neighbourhood shows Arnold returned several times in July and August 2022 to Fouani's neighbourhood.
"You keep coming back because you have other plans, you're not trying to jack that car, are you?" Mograbee put to Arnold.
"That's not correct," he replied.
Mograbee responded: "Come on, Mr. Arnold, there are plenty of luxury cars in Edmonton."
Two pieces of audio featured heavily in the prosecutor's cross-examination of Arnold.
The first involves the footage from a neighbour's home security camera.
As part of his carjacking story, Arnold testified that when he approached the couple as they pulled out of their driveway in their Bentley, he ordered Fouani to "get the f–k out of the car."
The shooting
But when prosecutors replayed the neighbour's video, Arnold can not be heard making that demand, this despite the video "picking up the sounds of voices," Mograbee noted.
"Just because you can't hear me doesn't mean it didn't happen," said Arnold.
Mograbee also challenged Arnold's testimony that he shot the woman impulsively when he noticed movement in his peripheral vision.
When zoomed in and slowed down, once Fouani put his window down, Arnold appears to calmly aim and shoot at Fouani and then stretched his arm into the car toward Baron who was, by then, cowering in the front seat.
He aimed at her and fired a second shot.
Baron died instantly.
Arnold made his way back to Edmonton, ditching evidence — the gun and his disguise — en route.
Back in Edmonton, in the days following the shooting, Arnold unintentionally recorded himself in conversation with a friend. This is the second piece of audio that was highlighted in Mograbee's cross-examination.
Much of the recording is indiscernible, but the Crown has suggested it shows Arnold was hired to execute Fouani. The recording begins with an unknown man asking Arnold: "How did it go?"
'The job'
Arnold tells the man "one person's in a coma clinging to life support and another one's dead."
Mograbee pointed out there was no mention of the supposed plan to steal the Bentley.
Later in the conversation, Arnold says "I owe him more money than fucking what the job.…"
The last part of his sentence is indiscernible, but Mograbee suggested to Arnold that his comment meant the money he was paid for the execution wouldn't cover his $40,000 debt.
Arnold disagreed with the suggestion.
The conversation then turned toward Fouani's injuries.
"At the end of the day, for an induced coma like a trauma or infection, the mortality rate's 75 per cent, so the statistics are on my side," Arnold told his friend.
'Nobody hired me'
Mograbee put to Arnold: "He's going to die and that it's going to work out for you."
But Arnold explained that what he meant was, if Fouani died, it would mean he wouldn't be able to identify his shooter.
Arnold denied Mograbee's suggestion that the shooting "was a planned execution."
"I was never hired to kill Talal Fouani or Nakita Baron," said Arnold, who then denied having organized crime connections that led him to Evergreen.
"Nobody hired me," he said.
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