Jealous fight? Or self defence? Crown paints alternative view of deadly stabbing in Windsor

Harpreet Majhail, 38, is on trial for second degree murder in the death of Mohammed Al Dubaisi, 20, who was killed on June 15, 2021.

“I was in a state of shock,” Majhail testified Tuesday. “I didn’t know what to do. I was panicked.”

Majhail has admitted to stabbing Al Dubaisi, from London, Ont., but in self-defence.

He told the jury Al Dubaisi was armed with a gun. A second man, Nazar Akobyan had a knife when a fight started between the three men.

“They attacked me. I defended myself,” Majhail said.

After the stabbing, Majhail said he went home, took off his clothes, put them in a garbage bag and redressed.

He told the jury he then drove to an industrial area in nearby Lauzon Parkway and threw the bag of clothes into the bushes.

Majhail says he then returned home and surrendered to police on his front lawn.

“I said ‘I’m here. I’m here.’ I put my hands up. I got down on the ground and they arrested me,” he said.

Majhail told the jury the fight “was fast,” lasting one to two minutes, fuelled by a dispute over his then girlfriend.

Assistant Crown attorney Andrew Telford-Keogh, however, painted a different version for the jury.

Majhail is an admitted drug addict with a troubled past and criminal record, court heard.

Majhail and his girlfriend, who he said is an alcoholic, had an “open relationship” for the majority of their time together.

“I was okay with it,” Majhail testified. “I appreciated her honesty.”

In June 2021, Majhail said they decided to become “exclusive,” but not before she told him about a previous sexual relationship with Akobyan.

In the days leading up to the stabbing, Majhail told the jury he and his girlfriend were on day two of an effort to get sober.

He told the jury he saw himself as her advisor, not her protector.

“We were in a relationship and we wanted to help raise each other up,” Majhail said. “I tried to help her as much as I could.”

Two days before this stabbing, court heard, the woman admitted to a second sexual encounter with Akobyan.

When Akobyan and Al Dubaisi came to his girlfriend’s apartment on June 15, Majhail said he was “confused.”

He told the jury the two men kept saying, “It’s not about what you want. It’s about what she wants.”

“These two guys showing up ruined the whole night,” Majhail testified. He admitted he was “wary” and “distrustful” of his girlfriend by this point.

“All of this history?” Telford-Keogh asked “No anger? No jealousy?”

“No.” Majhail replied, who maintains he was just confused.

Telford-Keogh pulled up Majhail’s statement to police, during which he told the detective, “I got so fricking paranoid that something else is going on behind my back.”

Majhail said he just wanted to know where he stood with his girlfriend but was never angry with her for her choices.

During his evidence in chief, Majhail testified one of the men threatened to kill him in Punjabi and Arabic.

Telford-Keogh noted that was never mentioned to police less than 24 hours after the stabbing.

Majhail told the jury “everything happened so fast” that he doesn’t recall when, how or where he stabbed Al Dubaisi.

“I had the knife in my hand and I was hitting him with both of my arms,” said Majhail. “I tried to pound him off of me with the knife in my hand.”

“You had options other than violence,” Telford-Keogh said to Majhail, who asked, “Like what?”

“Running away,” said the lawyer.

“I didn’t have a chance to run away,” Majhail responded.

Telford-Keogh then presented a timeline of events to the Majhail, portraying him as the aggressor, as the one who was armed a knife, as the one who threatened to kill the two men, as the one who chased Akobyan, as the one who fled the scene after the stabbing and left Al Dubaisi to die.

Majhail replied throughout, “I disagree completely with your version of events.”

Majhail does recall yelling to Al Dubaisi “you’ve been stabbed, stop” multiple times before the young men fell to the ground.

A juror was released Tuesday, leaving 12 people on the jury. Justice Paul Howard did not provide a reason for the juror being excused.

Closing arguments will take place Thursday with deliberations set to begin as soon as the “judge’s charge” is completed.