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When Daryl Johannesen first came across the scene of slain Calgary Uber driver Kasif Hirani he thought someone had jokingly left a mannequin at the side of the road.
But as Johannesen got closer to where Hirani’s bloodied body was left along a rural road west of Calgary, he realized it was no joke.
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“It appeared to be a male body that had been dragged over (to where it was located),” Johannesen told Crown prosecutor Alyx Nanji.
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“The blood trail led to the body.”
Johannesen told Nanji he was out walking his two yellow Labradors around dawn on Dec. 29, 2019, when he came upon the scene of Hirani’s killing near the Springbank Airport.
“I was walking my dogs along Rural Road 40,” the witness said.
“I noticed up on the east side of the road a dark spot, initially I thought somebody had dumped something on the side of the road,” he said.
As he got closer, Johannesen thought it might be a moose carcass and when he detected a human form thought it was a mannequin.
“Within 10 yards I could see there was some blood on the road … That was when I could see it was a body.”
Johannesen told Nanji it appeared the body had been propped up against a snowbank in a ditch by the side of the road.
“There was no steam coming from his mouth, or anything like that and to be safe I dialed 911 and reported what I found.”
On trial for first-degree murder in connection with Hirani’s stabbing death is Calgarian Robert Daignault, 55.
In an opening address before Calgary Court of King’s Bench Justice Eleanor Funk, co-prosecutor Britta Kristensen detailed the case she and Nanji expect to present.
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Kristensen said the Crown’s theory is that late on Dec. 28, 2019, or early the following morning Daignault and two others, Trista Tinkler and Andrew Christal hatched a plan to rob the Uber driver.
Tinkler, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter, arranged to meet up with Hirani “presumably for sexual services” early on the morning of Dec. 29, Kristensen said.
She expects Christal, who was convicted of the same charge, will testify he met up with Tinkler, Daignault and Hirani at a southwest Calgary home and the group travelled in Hirani’s car to the scene where the victim was slain.
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“It is anticipated you will hear that Hirani was repeatedly threatened for his banking information,” Kristensen told Funk.
“After the banking information had been received, Hirani was killed at the location in Springbank.”
In September, Funk rejected an application by defence lawyer Andrea Urquhart that Daignault’s charge should be stayed because of unreasonable delay after his first trial date was adjourned after he contracted COVID-19 while on remand.
KMartin@postmedia.com
X: @KMartinCourts
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