SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - It took Judge Bernadette Schmaltz only an hour to find Mohamed Ahmed Makaran guilty Thursday of uttering death threats to the same man his father clubbed over the head with a tire iron last year.

"I don't believe his testimony," said Schmaltz, who added Makaran, 23, was being evasive and only admitted to aspects of the incident that wouldn't incriminate him when she delivered the verdict at 4:15 p.m.

During his testimony at the one-day trial, Makaran told the court his mother came to his apartment on Jan. 10, 2011, around 11:50 a.m. crying. She told Makaran that the male complainant was disrespecting her "in every which way." Makaran said he found the complainant standing outside the building where "the anger took the better of me." Makaran testified the two men began arguing in Somali until the complainant got into the back seat of a taxi cab parked by the building. Makaran said he punched the car twice, but said at no point did he threaten the complainant.

"Why would I say I wanted to kill anyone? I wouldn't have the heart to kill anyone," he said.

Makaran pleaded not guilty to the charge in territorial court on April 26, 2011.

The complainant offered a different account on the stand, saying the accused told him he was dead and not going to live through the night.

Before the start of the trial, Crown prosecutor Dan Rideout stayed the same charge against co-accused Sadiya Aden, Makaran's mother. Schmaltz ordered Aden, 43, to enter into a six-month peace bond with the complainant.

On Dec. 9, 2010, Schmaltz sentenced Makaran's father, Ahmed, to nine months of house arrest for clubbing the same complainant over the head with a tire iron at the Shell parking lot on Range Lake Road. The incident took place between the two men, both taxi drivers for the same Yellowknife cab company at the time, on Feb. 20, 2010 at 2:30 a.m. Ahmed Makaran pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon on Oct. 13, 2010.

Mohamed Makaran will be back in territorial court on July 27 at 9:30 a.m. for sentencing.

- with files from Nathalie Heiberg-Harrison

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