Accused ‘boasting' in Google Translate history, jury hears in murder trial

Hamilton Spectator

12-05-2025

Alessandro Giammichele repeatedly claimed he was a former member of the Italian military special forces.
He said he owned a Ferrari — and got a Ferrari jacket from the owner of the company.
And he claimed to own 33 per cent of the casinos in the Dominican Republic.
Those claims were among the many phrases he entered into Google Translate while he was in the Dominican Republic in early 2019, a jury saw Friday at the John Sopinka Courthouse.
Staff Sgt. Rich Wouters of the Hamilton police, under cross-examination from defence lawyer Kendra Stanyon, testified the translation history shows a pattern of Giammichele 'boasting about himself' to show off to other people — including women.
'He says anything to pick someone up,' Wouters said.
The jury previously saw Giammichele's English-to-Spanish Google Translate search history included phrases such as 'I am a hitman' and 'How I deal with things usually ends up with people dead.'
Marko Bakir, 31, was shot five times in the driveway of his west Mountain home around 8:15 p.m. on Nov. 22, 2018. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Giammichele is charged with first-degree murder in Bakir's killing. He has pleaded not guilty.
Assistant Crown attorney Elise Quinn previously told the jury of eight men and four women that while Giammichele didn't physically pull the trigger, he played a 'fundamental role' in the killing. Quinn said the alleged 'hitman' who shot Bakir five times was Abdelaziz Ibrahim, who is now dead.
In 2018, Bakir, who had recently been awarded a $362,000 settlement following a motorcycle crash, lent Giammichele $100,000 to invest, Quinn previously told the jury. The loan came with a contract and repayment schedule — but Giammichele didn't pay it back.
During cross-examination, Wouters said text messages from Giammichele's phone show he didn't want to stay in the same place for 'more than two sleeps' in late 2018 before he left Canada for the Caribbean nation.
The jury also saw information from Giammichele's translation history where he claimed $150,000 was 'not even one per cent' of his wealth — something Wouters said is not the case, unless Giammichele had funds in cash or a secret bank account.
However, the court also saw translations indicating Giammichele owed people money in the Dominican Republic — and claimed to have his accounts frozen in Canada by police, which is why he couldn't pay. Wouters said police did not freeze his accounts.
Earlier Friday, the jury saw bank records indicating that despite receiving the $362,000 settlement in August 2018, when Bakir was killed in November of the same year, he had a negative balance in his bank account.
Bakir's bank records showed he previously withdrew amounts of $150,000, $100,000 and $91,000 in September 2018. The court previously heard Bakir used $150,00 for a down payment on a house, $91,000 on a Lamborghini — and provided $100,000 to Giammichele to invest.
The jury previously saw text messages between Bakir and Giammichele indicating Bakir needed the money owed to him by Giammichele.
Around the time of Bakir's death, the jury heard, Giammichele's bank accounts had very little money in them — in one case negative funds, and in another less than $15.
However, bank documents showed Giammichele received more than $100,000 from his mother's estate between December 2018 and January 2019.
The trial continues Monday.