Granny-scam suspect pleads guilty to capital-region frauds
After his admissions, the Crown sought to call Manasseh Kebede, 20, as a witness against his co-accused, but the judge had other ideas
A Montreal man set to stand trial Thursday with a co-accused in a grandparent phone scam opted instead to plead guilty to eight counts of fraud.
Manasseh Kebede, 20, and Saleh Mohamed, 30, both of Montreal, were brought to Fredericton provincial court in custody Thursday, scheduled to stand trial jointly on 14 counts of defrauding capital-region residents of thousands and one count of attempted fraud.
But instead of going to trial, Kebede changed his plea to guilty on eight of the charges against him.
He admitted to defrauding the following people of more than $5,000: Marie Friesen of Islandview, Dawn and Gerald Drost of Fredericton, Enid Beckwith of Fredericton, David Reed of Fredericton, Mary Matthews of Fredericton, and Verna Peterson of Fredericton, all on Aug. 24; and Donald Trundle of Lincoln on Aug. 25.
Kebede also pleaded guilty to attempting to defraud Judith Baird of Oromocto of more than $5,000 on Aug. 25.
Defence lawyer Emily Cochrane requested a pre-sentence report, and prosecutor Gwynne Hearn asked for the preparation of victim-impact statements.
Judge Natalie LeBlanc scheduled Kebede’s sentencing for April 20 and remanded him again until that time.
It’s expected the Crown will withdraw the remaining counts against Kebede once sentencing is concluded.
That left the matter of Mohamed’s trial.
Crown seeks to sever the cases
Given Kebede’s guilty pleas, Hearn asked the court to allow the Crown to move ahead separately on Mohamed, formally moving for the severance of the joint charges.
When defendants are charged jointly, they have to be tried together, and one defendant can’t be called as a witness against the other.
The prosecutor said now that Kebede has admitted guilt, that changes the situation.
“The Crown may wish to call Mr. Kebede as a witness,” she said.
Hearn also asked the court to adjourn Mohamed’s trial until after Kebede’s sentencing hearing.
“I don’t understand why we’re not starting [now],” LeBlanc said.
Mohamed had previously pleaded guilty to the charges against him and was scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 14.
However, Judge Cameron Gunn rejected his guilty pleas when it became apparent Mohamed wasn’t admitting he committed the crimes or that he was wilfully blind to the fact that he was engaged in illegal activity.
Since Kebede’s trial was already scheduled to begin this week, Gunn set the matter over to the same time for trial, as the pair had to be tried jointly anyway.
Hearn said Thursday the prosecution is only proceeding against Mohamed on the same eight counts to which Kebede pleaded guilty, and she noted the trial will be much shorter than expected.
She said the only issue to be determined in Mohamed’s trial now is whether he was wilfully blind to being involved in the frauds, meaning the Crown needn’t call the various victims as witnesses.
Defence opposes delay
Ben Reentovich, Mohamed’s defence lawyer, said he and Hearn are preparing an agreed statement of facts in which Mohamed will admit his participation in the schemes but not any awareness of what was going on.
Hearn said given the dramatic changes in the case over the past week, the requests to sever the cases and to postpone the trial were merited.
Reentovich said his client didn’t oppose the severance, but he was against any further delay, arguing the abbreviated trial could get underway Friday.
However, LeBlanc denied both Crown motions.
“There is a presumption against severing joint trials,” she said, noting there’s jurisprudence that shows they’re more likely to get to the truth, avoid inconsistent findings and are easier on witnesses.
Furthermore, the judge said, she was reluctant to waste a couple of days of court time given the busy docket, and the Crown has already done all of the preparation for the case.
LeBlanc said the trial would begin Friday morning.
Mohamed will remain in custody until the case concludes.
New Brunswick saw a significant spike in instances of this phone scam last summer, so much so that police forces issued public warnings about it.
The scam is often known colloquially as a granny scam, as it involved perpetrators claiming to be loved ones or even police officers calling victims - often grandparents - to demand huge sums of cash, purportedly for bail.
The Saint John Police Force arrested and charged four other men, also from Quebec, for allegedly running the same scam in the port city area last summer.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.
Great job on covering this case!