Man who shot Calgary couple in Bentley guilty of 2nd, not 1st-degree murder
Nakita Baron, 31, died while husband Talal Fouani was shot but survived
An Edmonton man accused of acting as a hit man in a Calgary shooting has been found not guilty of first-degree murder but guilty of second-degree murder.
Michael Arnold, 36, from Edmonton, was on trial for first-degree murder in the death of Nakita Baron and attempted murder of her husband, Talal Fouani, who were shot while in their Bentley outside their Calgary home in August 2022.
The jury deliberated for about 16 hours over two days before coming to the decision.
Arnold's lawyer argued the shooting was not planned and asked jurors to return a manslaughter conviction and an acquittal on the attempted murder.
Prosecutors Hyatt Mograbee and Greg Whiteside argued the evidence showed Arnold was a hired hit man who carried out a planned execution.
Their theory was that Fouani — who had recently been charged with money laundering for organized crime — was the intended target and that Baron was killed to eliminate a witness.
Jurors began deliberating Thursday afternoon.
Fouani was charged with money laundering weeks before the shooting took place.
As part of the same investigation, police charged more than a dozen others, including Ricco King, the alleged leader of the criminal organization.
Mexican cartel connection
The group was accused of running a massive, cross-border drug trafficking operation involving Mexican cartels.
At the time charges were announced, police said it was believed the $55-million drug bust involving nearly one metric tonne of methamphetamine and six kilograms of cocaine was the largest ever in Alberta.
Five months ago, charges were stayed against most of the accused, including King. This is the second time in five years he's escaped international drug importation charges.
In September, federal Crown prosecutors stayed all charges faced by King, Jarett Mackenzie, 34, Elias Ade, 40, Abdul Akbar, 39, and Kari-Lynn Grant, 53; the alleged leaders and those facing the most serious offences.
Five others saw their charges dropped last year as well.
In 2023, Fouani pleaded guilty to money laundering but has yet to be sentenced. He tried, unsuccessfully to get his charges stayed due to, what his lawyer argued, was an unreasonable delay in concluding the case.
Despite the organized crime connections with the victims, defence lawyers Kathryn Quinlan and Jordan McDermott rejected the Crown's hired hit man theory.
They argued that "it doesn't make sense" that a criminal organization would hire Arnold, a man who testified he had a crystal meth addiction "and less than $11 in his bank account."
The defence also argued that if the shooting was a hired hit, Arnold would have fired more than two shots at the victims.
Arnold testified that while in Calgary in the summer of 2022, he spotted Fouani's Bentley in his southwest neighbourhood of Evergreen and became "obsessed" with stealing it.
Security footage from Fouani's neighbours shows Arnold returned to Calgary's Evergreen neighbourhood several times before the shooting.
On the morning of Aug. 18, 2022, after spending the night parked near Fouani's home, Arnold put on a construction worker disguise and, with his small dog in tow, walked up to the couple's vehicle as they pulled out of their driveway.
Arnold testified that before he fired his gun, as part of his carjacking plan, he ordered Fouani to "get the f–k out of the car."
But despite the video picking up other, quieter sounds like birds chirping, Arnold can't be heard making the demand. Security footage shows Fouani lowering his window before Arnold took two shots, striking both victims.
Baron died instantly. Despite being shot in the face, Fouani survived.
Sentencing will take place at a later date.
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