Accused murderer Mohamad Lilo is back in court today in Barrie for a preliminary hearing for charges relating to the kidnapping and presumed killing of Elnaz Hajtamiri.
Hajtamiri was abducted from a family member’s house in Wasaga Beach in January 2022 and has not been seen or heard from since. Police believe she is dead.
Lilo, her 37-year-old former boyfriend, is accused of being the ringleader of a group that participated in her adduction and murder.
Hajtamiri was also assaulted in Richmond Hill about a month before being taken in Wasaga Beach and Lilo also faces charges stemming from that incident.
Hajtamiri, who was 37 at the time of her disappearance, had fled to Wasaga Beach for protection, but was abducted by three men dressed in quasi-police gear who fled in a white Lexus.
The case has seen up to a dozen people charged related to either the Richmond Hill assault, her Wasaga Beach abduction or a stolen-vehicle ring connected to the case. At the time of his arrest, Lilo had a shipping container business that may have been involved in the overseas transportation of stolen vehicles.
Some of the accused have had their cases resolved through quick guilty pleas and subsequent deportations.
One of the accused, Adams Ankamah, of Brampton, had kidnapping charges withdrawn in a Collingwood court last week. The Crown also stayed a weapons charge against Ankamah.
Another of those charged, Deshawn Davis, who is suspected of being one of Hajtamiri’s three abductors, was arrested in California earlier this year. Davis is also suspected of being involved in a murder in Miami. His arrest on those charges in the U.S. – he was on most wanted lists on both sides of the border at the time – has raised the spectre of Lilo’s case being affected by American justice having first crack at Davis.
Lilo was arrested a little more than a week after Hajtamiri’s disappearance on lesser charges. First-degree murder, adduction and assault charges followed, and he has been in jail for more than two years.
The charges have not been tested in court.
Lilo was also in court last week attempting to get bail under strict house-arrest conditions. Justice Cary Boswell has reserved his decision. Lilo’s lawyer, Anthony Bryant, proposed that his client wear an ankle monitor and that his parents put up a portion of their Quebec City-area home as part of the bail to ensure his compliance.
Bryant has raised issues about Crown disclosure in the case.
Lilo is currently being held at Central North Correctional Centre in Penetanguishene.
