‘I am a hitman': Jury sees accused's Google Translate history in murder trial
'I am a hitman.'
That is one of the phrases in Alessandro Giammichele's English-to-Spanish Google Translate search history while he was in the Dominican Republic in early 2019, a jury heard Thursday at the John Sopinka Courthouse.
Staff Sgt. Rich Wouters of the Hamilton police told the jury that Giammichele's phone history also included translation data saying, 'How I deal with things usually ends up with people dead.' In addition, Wouters testified Giammichele's phone included translation history that said he 'did a lot of bad things' and 'took care of a big problem' in Canada — and that he was in the Dominican Republic 'hiding out and planning my revenge.'
'I enjoy hurting people,' another translation search read. 'I'm very good at it.'
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 $350,000 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.
Wouters, the primary investigator on the case for 19 months, testified he arrested Giammichele for murder and seized his phone at Pearson International Airport when he returned to Canada from the Dominican Republic on May 10, 2019. Wouters said police recovered data from the phone that showed Giammichele's Google account signed into the phone on Nov. 22 at 10:19 p.m. — a little over two hours after Bakir's murder.
The court saw text messages from the seized phone in late November 2018 which said the phone was Giammichele's new number.
The jury was also shown surveillance video from Pearson International Airport on Dec. 4, 2018 — less than two weeks after Bakir was murdered — which Wouters said showed Giammichele going through customs before leaving for the Caribbean nation.
Wouters testified the Google search history recovered from the phone shows numerous searches for 'Hamilton Mountain shooting' and related topics. In addition, text messages and search history data show Giammichele was researching flights to the Dominican Republic in the days following the murder.
He said Giammichele's phone also included translation searches saying he bought and sold 'kilograms' of cocaine and that he had a 'mafia and hitman life' and was a 'very powerful businessman.'
In other testimony, Wouters told the jury that police executed search warrants on March 28, 2019, at addresses on Hendershot Road in Hamilton and Thames Street South in Ingersoll related to Vlad Sulug. A phone number associated with Sulug was identified as a contact 'Zio' in Giammichele's phone, he added.
While police were executing the search warrants, Wouters said call data from Giammichele's phone shows numerous calls to Sulug — including five in a 15-minute span.
A red Ford F-150 pickup truck was also seized by police from Sulug. When searched, Wouters said police found a receipt from Nov. 30, 2018, with Giammichele's name and address on it in the driver's door. Quinn previously told the court the accused drove a red Ford F-150 pickup truck at the time — and the truck was captured on surveillance footage from two different cameras in Bakir's neighbourhood.
When asked by Quinn, Wouters said there was 'no reason to believe' a second person was involved in Bakir's killing early in the investigation. After viewing surveillance footage of a man running in Bakir's neighbourhood minutes after the shooting, Wouters said the individual does not 'appear to match' Giammichele's description.
He added he never heard Ibrahim's name during his time in the investigation.
The trial continues Friday.
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