“I’m still wondering why my son was killed,” 33-year-old Soheil Rafipour’s mother said said.
Two men have been sentenced to life in prison for a “cold and callous” murder police linked to violent conflicts within the Ontario towing industry. Shantui Dozer Track Pad Bolts
In a Newmarket court hearing that was delayed by a reported threat to the victim’s family on Friday, Superior Court Justice Joseph Di Luca described how Mohamad El-Zahawi and Cory Chung “hunted down and executed” 33-year-old Soheil Rafipour as he left a Richmond Hill Christmas party.
El-Zahawi and Chung conducted a week of surveillance before tracking Rafipour to where he was killed near the home on Barnwood Drive, in the area of Bayview Avenue and Stouffville Road, at around 9:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve 2018, Di Luca explained.
The pair are the second and third people to be found guilty in Rafipour’s drive-by killing.
A jury found El-Zahawi and Chung guilty of first-degree murder last month, agreeing with the Crown’s theory that El-Zahawi organized the assassination and Chung was one of two people who fired upon Rafipour from a passing Volkswagen SUV.
Thomas Sliwinski previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 years in prison last fall. Another man, Abdelaziz Ibrahim, was charged with first-degree murder but was found dead at the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay in August 2022.
Mortally wounded from an initial volley, Rafipour ran to a nearby street corner, where he collapsed. The SUV followed him, and he was shot again several times, the trial heard.
The start of Friday’s sentencing hearing was delayed due to a “security issue,” as Crown attorney Lesley Pasquino informed Di Luca that Rafipour’s family had “received information that they should not come to court today because there was going to be a shooting.”
“We don’t know the veracity of it or exactly where it came from,” she told the court.
A contingent of York Regional Police officers was deployed to the courthouse before the hearing was cleared to proceed.
In a victim impact statement read by prosecutor Kevin Stewart, Rafipour’s mother, whom the Star is not naming over her ongoing concerns for her safety, wrote that her son was a kind person who aided many charitable endeavours both in Toronto and abroad, raising money to support people in several countries including Kenya, Myanmar and Pakistan.
“The day my son’s life was taken away, I died with him too,” she wrote. “He died at a very young age and did not deserve it.”
She separately told the Star that her son was never involved in the towing industry in any capacity; Rafipour was a music artists manager, who was also involved in the family business.
“I’m still wondering why my son was killed,” she said.
Police initially charged six people, including two women, in connection with Rafipour’s killing.
In a preliminary inquiry, a judge said police believe Rafipour’s death was connected to the tow truck wars that “have engulfed Southern Ontario” — however the jury was not told this at trial.
The case is one of several linked to a police investigation dubbed “Project Platinum,” which police said involved at least four murders and scores of arsons, shootings and threats. The investigation also resulted in charges being laid against several OPP officers.
At the same time, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Rafipour’s death, Sliwinski also admitted to pointing a firearm at civil litigation lawyer Lisa Carr, who represented insurance companies who were suing tow truck operators engaged in illegal business practices, court documents show.
Describing Project Platinum, York Regional Police have previously said that at least four organized crime groups were fighting for profits in a corrupt web of physiotherapy clinics, body shops and car rental businesses.
In her closing submissions to the jury, Crown attorney Pasquino described efforts to attach a GPS device to Rafipour’s red Corvette.
“The totality of the evidence in this case reveals a group enterprise to murder Rafipour,” she said.
Explaining their roles in the plot, the prosecutor said El-Zahawi, who was 38 at the time of his arrest in March 2020, was the organizer.
“Every person, every place, every vehicle is connected to El-Zahawi,” she said.
Chung, who was 24 at the time, was one of two people in the Volkswagen SUV, “both of whom shot at Rafipour as he was on the ground,” Pasquino said.
“Whether he was a passenger or a driver, Chung is guilty of first-degree murder.”
At the hearing on Friday, El-Zahawi apologized to Rafipour’s family, saying: “What happened to your son is not fair. It was not supposed to happen. If I knew that your son was going to die, I swear on my daughter’s life, I was going to stop it.”
El-Zahawi claimed to have been “set up by other people,” and maintained that he was innocent of murder.
For his part, Chung remained defiant — “I didn’t do anything,” he said.
Earlier this month, the province announced a coroner’s inquest into the circumstances surrounding Ibrahim’s 2022 death. Inquests are mandatory for all deaths in the Ontario jail system.
Jason Miller is a Toronto-based reporter for the Star covering crime and justice in the Peel Region. Reach him on email: jasonmiller@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @millermotionpic.
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