The widow of a Toronto man robbed of his gold chain and killed during her birthday celebration three years ago says she’s lived with guilt ever since.
Mohanie Henry-Khan delivered a heart-wrenching victim impact statement in a Toronto courtroom Friday during the sentencing hearing for Jahvon Waldron.
In November, a jury found Waldron guilty of second-degree murder, aggravated assault and robbery with a firearm in the May 7, 2022, shooting death of 36-year-old Peter Khan.
That night, Khan, his wife and his friends were out at the Tropical Nights Bar in Scarborough celebrating her 32nd birthday when tragedy unfolded. Khan and his friend were in the parking lot standing next to his car when a masked-man approached them and asked for a cigarette before grabbing his gold chain that he was wearing.
Khan was then shot in the chest at close range. He was rushed to hospital where he later died.
Henry-Khan told court Friday about how she has lived with the guilt of knowing her husband was killed on the night he took her out to celebrate her birthday.
“Your honour, how can I celebrate my life when it resulted in my husband’s death?” Khan said through tears.
She told court that after the shooting, she ran to her husband’s side to try to help him.
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“I tried my best to stop the bleeding, the person I loved most in this world. Peter called my name very faintly,” she said.
“He held my hand as he lay there dying, looked me in my eyes and said, ‘I love you.’ My husband’s last words were to remind me that he loved me.”
That same night, Dante Roopchand was also shot and robbed of his gold chain, and another man was robbed at knifepoint of his gold chain at a nearby shopping plaza.
Assistant Crown attorney Paul Kelly told Superior Court Justice Brian O’Marra that Waldron, who was 28 at the time, should spend life in prison with no chance of parole for 20 to 25 years.
“This entire episode is replete with aggravating factors. How deliberate and calculated Waldron’s actions were: He went to Tropical Nights to rob people, rob them of their gold,” Kelly said.
“He planned to rob them, he shot them; the wounding and robbery of Mr. Roopchand, which by sheer chance was not homicide as well.”
Second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence, but O’Marra must decide an appropriate period of parole ineligibility between 10 and 25 years.
Kelly told O’Marra that there is a reason that six of the 12 jurors suggested a period of parole ineligibility of 25 years, even without knowing about Waldron’s lengthy criminal record.
Defence lawyer Brian Crothers suggested an appropriate period of parole ineligibility for the murder would be 12 to 15 years.
Crothers told court that Waldron’s father was deported to Trinidad due to troubles with the law when he was a baby, but despite that, he came from a loving home.
Crothers also spoke about how he was impacted by the fatal shooting of his older brother in 2011 — witnessing his older brother die in his arms.
“He had trauma counselling after the shooting of his brother happened,” Crothers said.
Kelly rebuffed Crothers’ statement.
“Someone who had experienced the trauma of his brother’s death due to gun violence would be the last person who would so callously take the life of another due to gun violence but apparently that’s not the case,” Kelly said.
Waldron was asked if he wanted to address the court in advance of being sentenced. His lawyer said he had nothing to say.
O’Marra will deliver his sentence on March 28.
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