One of four people charged in death of Ahmad Al Marrach found guilty of manslaughter

A fourth teenager has been convicted in the death of Ahmad Al Marrach in Halifax last year.

A Halifax judge has found one of four people charged in the stabbing death of high school student Ahmad Al Marrach guilty of manslaughter on Tuesday.

“We’re pleased with the result. Of course, the result doesn’t change the fact that the victim is no longer here and the impact of his death still continues to affect his friends and family,” said senior Crown attorney Sarah Kirby.

The Crown initially sought a second-degree conviction but conceded in April they hadn’t met that legal standard and asked the Judge Elizabeth Buckle to find the youth guilty of manslaughter – which is a homicide, but unlike second-degree murder there is a lack of intent.

In her closing arguments in April 2025, prosecutor Sharon Goodwin told the judge on the day of the deadly brawl - April 22, 2024 - the accused and Al Marrach had agreed to a one-on-one fight that would not involve weapons, as the boys were feuding over a girl.

Then, Goodwin said, the teen messaged two friends and asked them to come with him and join the fight with Al Marrach, saying among other things, “We ain’t holding back.” The brawl between Al Marrach and the teenager lasted just three seconds before his two friends joined in, Goodwin said.

The accused “unilaterally transformed the agreed-upon fight into a three-on-one ambush without the consent of Al Marrach,” Goodwin said. She said the accused had a knife on him when he ambushed Al Marrach and he was aware that his friend was also carrying a knife.

“What the common intention section considers is if a group decides to do something together and one of that group does something else that causes harm, if that something else, the general nature of it, is reasonably foreseeable, then the whole group can be held responsible,” said Kirby.

“When I say when the group decides to do something together, it has to be an unlawful act, so the unlawful act was the group assault, and of that group assault came the stabbing, and so Judge Buckle found that made the young person not only guilty through being a co-principal, and because his actions significantly contributed to the death.

“She also said that she was finding him guilty through the root of common intention and her reasoning of that would be found within her written decision which she will release at a later date.”

Kirby added the Crown is still considering seeking an adult sentence for the teen, but there are a lot of steps in that process including a number of reports assessing factors like the teen’s maturity.

“Once we’ve received those reports, we’ll be in a better position to assess whether or not we will proceed with an application for him to be assessed as an adult. If we were to do that, then Judge Buckle would make a ruling on whether or not he could be sentenced as an adult, and then we would be in a position of seeking a sentence that an adult would get,” she said.

“We could decide not to proceed in that way depending on what the reports say, if they don’t provide what we think is the evidence needed to meet the test, or we could go ahead, and Judge Buckle could decide that she’s not convinced and then it would be a youth sentencing.”

The Crown did not disclose what it would seek if the teen was sentenced as an adult.

Defence lawyer Anna Mancini argued that the Crown had not established beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused knew his friend was carrying a knife.

Mancini said shocked texts her client sent a friend immediately after the fight show he did not have any foresight that a stabbing would occur.

Mancini added that the accused’s circumstances meant that it was common to carry a knife for protection.

The lawyer also argued that Al Marrach had consented to the fight and was aware of the potential that multiple people would be involved.

The judge accepted the defence’s argument that the teen did not foresee knives would be used, that two robberies would be attempted, or that Al Marrach would be stabbed and die, but she was convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that someone in his position should realize this unlawful act could cause significant bodily harm to Al Marrach.

In April, a Nova Scotia judge sentenced a teenage girl to three months in a youth detention centre and 24 months under community supervision for her role in the stabbing death.

The girl, who was 14 at the time of the killing, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in October, having admitted she was one of four teens who attacked Al Marrach.

The girl and three teenage boys were originally charged with second-degree murder. Their identities are also protected from publication.

One of the boys, who was 14 at the time, pleaded guilty in January to second-degree murder, admitting that he was the one who stabbed the Grade 10 student with a stolen kitchen knife. Another boy, who was 17 at the time, pleaded guilty in October to manslaughter.

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