Nizafed Deljanin
Montréal, QC / Dec. 2, 1995
Nizafed Deljanin, a Bosnian civil engineer, came to Canada with his wife and daughter in 1991. After five years on welfare he managed to save the $1,000 he needed to go to taxi driver school and get his license. He hoped to use his earnings to take courses toward accreditation as an engineer in Québec, and also to help bring other members of his family to Canada.
December 2, 1995 was his eighth night as a taxi driver. He was last seen about 8:30 p.m., about an hour and a half into his shift, when he picked up a fellow driver who was having car trouble. At about 10 p.m. a passerby found Deljanin's cab idling on Basswood Street in suburban Pierrefonds at the edge of Bois de Liesse regional park. Deljanin had been shot three to six times in the chest. There was $18 on the meter.
The killer was a 19-year-old man. He had flagged Deljanin down and directed him to Pierrefonds where he intended to visit his fifteen-year-old girlfriend, the mother of his infant daughter, despite a court order banning him from the area. On their arrival the killer told Deljanin that he did not have money for the fare, and when Deljanin mentioned "something about the police" the killer shot him.
Although the killer claimed the shooting was accidental, eleven entry and exit wounds were found in Deljanin's body, along with defensive wounds on his hands and powder burns indicating that the shots had been fired at close range.
The killer robbed Deljanin of about $50 and then fled to his girlfriend's apartment. He gave her the stolen money and persuaded her to hide the gun and his bloody shirt. Later the same evening the girl and her mother passed by Deljanin's cab which police were still examining. The girl's reaction caused her mother to question her and the story of the killer's visit came out. The mother phoned the police and provided them with the killer's name and description as well as the gun and discarded shirt. He was tracked down and arrested in a Hamilton bar.
At the trial Deljanin's widow told the judge that her 4 1/2 year old son had refused to accept the death of his father, and that her eight year old daughter was so shaken that she had to repeat her school year. Deljanin's mother had fallen into a severe depression and lost her will to live.
The killer, who had previous convictions in 1994 for assault and assault causing bodily harm, was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to life with no possibility of parole for thirteen years.
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