Nanny

This story is truly disgusting. It makes me want to vomit.


House set ablaze for crack
Long prison term sought for drug addict who set fire that killed two children

By KEVIN MARTIN, CALGARY SUN


The man the Crown wants jailed for up to 20 years for the slayings of two Calgary kids fire-bombed a home to earn $60 for crack cocaine, a Calgary court heard yesterday.

Defence counsel Charlie Stewart said Michael Sheets was a victim himself because he was duped into believing he was throwing a Molotav cocktail into an empty house.

"He, too, was a victim, because he was set up and he was not told the truth," Stewart told provincial court Judge Allan Fradsham.

But Crown prosecutor Joanne Durant painted a different picture of Sheets, saying the career criminal should be locked up for a long time over the deaths of Ali and Saja Al-Mayahi.

In an emotional court proceeding, which saw the children's mother often break down while their father stared in disbelief, Durant outlined the victims' tragic last moments.

The brother and sister, aged six and four at the time, died when two Molotov cocktails were thrown through the window of the Applewood Lane S.E. residence they shared with their parents.

Durant said Sheets and another man had gone to the home and Sheets threw a rock through the window to break it before the homemade bombs were tossed in.

The children and their mother, Salima Barih, were home asleep, while their father, Tahsin Al-Mayahi, was out working an overnight shift, Durant said.

"Barih awoke to the flames and smoke and attempted to rescue her children," she said.

The mother couldn't get into the bedroom where her only children slept and jumped out a second-floor window before desperately trying to get back inside.

"Both Ali and Saja perished in the blaze," said Durant, as Barih began sobbing in the front row of the courtroom.

In a victim impact statement, the mom said the loss of her children has devastated her and her husband.

"For us as parents, our lives are meaningless and empty each day," she wrote, in a statement read to the court by Durant.

"You took the hopes and dreams of these bright young children and buried them underground forever."

Durant said Sheets was initially recruited to scare Barih before being paid to torch the home.

She said an 18- to 20-year sentence is called for.

Fradsham will make a decision June 22.