Posted: Jan 19, 2021 5:01 AM ET | Last Updated: January 19
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens says he approached the court to ask if he could write the community impact statement.(Sanjay Maru/CBC)
The decision of Mayor Drew Dilkens to insert his voice into the sentencing hearing of a man convicted second degree murder for brutally beating of a senior on the Ganatchio Trail in October of 2017 is being questioned by some within the legal community. I offer these remarks on behalf of the entire city for whom I am elected to lead, the statement written by Dilkens read.
In October of 2017, Sara Anne Widholm was brutally attacked and beaten on the Ganatchio Trail she died over a year later. In December, after a two-week trial, 24-year-old Habibullah Ahmadi, who admitted to using cannabis and magic mushrooms the day of the crime, was convicted of second degree murder in her death.
Out in less than a decade? Fri Jan 15, 2021 Last November Habibullah Ahmadi, 24, was found guilty of second-degree murder in the October 8, 2017, beating of Sara Anne Widholm in Windsor, Ontario. The 75-year-old grandmother did not die until December 17, 2018, but according to Dr. Balraj Jhawar, the beating left her in a “worse state than death.” For this heinous crime, a Tuesday hearing revealed, Habibullah will not receive the worst possible sentence. “Second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence,” wrote Trevor Wilhelm in the
Windsor Star, but Habibullah Ahmadi would not get a life sentence. Instead the hearing focused on “when Ahmadi should become eligible for parole.” The range is 10 to 25 years, and prosecutor Renee Puskas argued that the convicted murderer “should not become eligible for parole for 14 to 17 years,” at best nearly a decade less than the possible maximum.
Author of the article: Trevor Wilhelm
Publishing date: Jan 12, 2021 • January 12, 2021 • 4 minute read • A close-up of the plaque at the memorial area on the Ganatchio Trail dedicated to Sara Anne Widholm, who died at the age of 76 in 2018 following a brutal beating on Oct. 8, 2017. Photo by Dalson Chen /Windsor Star
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One of Sara Anne Widholm’s greatest regrets with her last breath would not have been about dying, but knowing she couldn’t tell her husband one last time how much she loved him, her son said Tuesday,
Several of Widholm’s friends and family along with Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, in a rare foray into criminal court proceedings filed victim impact statements for a sentencing hearing that began Tuesday for Widholm’s killer.
WINDSOR, ONT. Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens has written a “community victim statement” for the sentencing of Habibullah “Danny” Ahmadi. The 24-year-old was convicted of second degree murder in November in the beating of Sara Ann Widholm, 75. On Oct. 8, 2017, Widholm was attacked while walking on the Ganatchio Trail just before 8 a.m. The attack “shocked the community to its core,” the mayor wrote in his statement. Defence lawyer, Patricia Brown, believes the mayor’s entire statement should not be considered because it offers opinions about the nature of the crime, which are not true. Brown acknowledges the mayor’s thoughts about the community impact of the attack are justified, but says his words “crimes like the savage beating of Sara Ann just don’t happen in the City of Windsor, are inaccurate.