Christian Nkusi, 24, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and aggravated assault in the stabbing of Handule Farah. Photograph by: handout photo
, Ottawa Police Service
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Handule Farah was $60 short for a gram of crack when the drug dealer
he knew only as Wheezy stabbed him in the neck with a screwdriver inside
his Westboro apartment last August, he testified in an Ottawa courtroom
Tuesday.But what made Wheezy even angrier was that he couldn’t
find his Rwandan passport that he had left on the dining room table,
Farah said.
“He accused me of taking it,” Farah testified. “He’s got a short temper.”
The
passport belonged to Christian Nkusi. Police found it propping open the
door to apartment 702 when they responded to a report of a stabbing at
31 Van Lang Pte just before 1 p.m. on Aug. 21.
Nkusi, 25, has
pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and aggravated assault. He has
previous robbery, weapon and drug convictions.
Farah also has a criminal record, including assaulting a bus driver, trafficking crack and stealing a taxi.
“I’m not proud of my past,” Farah said, adding that he hasn’t used drugs in more than six months. “I’m a changed man today.”
Farah
testified had been up all night and was looking to score some crack
when he called his one-time dealer on a Tuesday morning. He lied about
having $80.
Nkusi took the $20 he did have before the stabbing, he testified.
“I was so afraid. Blood was gushing out of my neck to the wall,” Farah said. “He left me dying.”
The
flathead screwdriver cut his carotid artery and surgery to reconstruct
it took two to three hours. Farah was in a coma for three days after the
operation. He also had a cut on his eyelid, below his ear and on his
back, and multiple broken bones in his face.
Farah offered various
reasons why he initially told police it was a knife — not a screwdriver
— that was jabbed into his neck. At one point he said it was
post-surgery haze, then a language problem before admitting he didn’t
have a knife in his apartment at all.
“Listen, I’m the one who got
stabbed. I’m the one who got close to dying,” he told defence lawyer
Jeffrey Langevin during cross-examination.
Farah was born in
Somalia and moved to Canada with his family in 1991. He was a
construction worker until a back injury landed him on the Ontario
Disability Support Program five years ago, he said.
Langevin suggested that Farah took the passport to use as collateral for crack because he only had $20.
“I didn’t hide it,” Farah responded.
He said he could see the passport on the floor but didn’t tell Nkusi because he was still hoping for drugs.
“It was a stupid move,” Farah said. “He never gave me crack. He was pissed off.”
Farah said he hid the passport after the stabbing when Nkusi had left.
“I didn’t know how bad it was,” he said. “I still wanted to smoke.”
His testimony is expected to continue Wednesday.