Filled with murderous resentment, an escort driver reportedly killed an escort agency owner with 16 stab wounds after ambushing him to avenge a stolen love.
“This case is set in the unknown universe of the sex trade and an escort agency,” prosecutor Matthew Ferguson said in his opening statement to a jury in Kamel Chebbout’s trial.
The 39-year-old is charged with the first-degree murder of Azzedine Laknit.
On the morning of February 20, 2019, the defendant, a companion driver, lured the 50-year-old victim into a Decarie Square parking lot, claiming he wanted to give him money. However, Chebbout, who would have been drinking gin that night, had another idea, killing the owner of the escort agency in revenge.
The two men had had a falling out since 2018 over a girl whose driver had fallen in love. Chebbout didn’t accept the split and attacked the victim at the time, whom he accused of stealing his wife.
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brief truce
In the face of numerous threats, the victim had even filed a complaint with the police, but the conflict seemed to have subsided.
“The truce was short-lived, the defendant never dropped the case,” said Mr. Ferguson.
Out of this grudge, Chebbout plans to kill his victim in February 2019. Thanks to his mobile phone, which recorded all his calls, the accused would have left traces of his intent in the hours before the crime.
Photo provided by the SPVM
Camel Chebbout
accused
“I swear I will,” he reportedly told a friend the day before.
As Azzedine Laknit’s BMW was parked near the defendant’s car at around 6.40am, Chebbout got into it from the passenger side and stabbed his victim 16 times with a kitchen knife. Two witnesses were arrested by the screams of the deceased.
Archive photo
The knife on the ground on February 20, 2019 in Montreal’s Décarie Square that would have been used to murder an escort agency owner.
Once out of the vehicle, the defendant called 911 to report. He then contacted the 50-year-old’s escort agency and said: “He died, I killed him, I called the police, I will spend my life in prison, but I don’t like it when someone touches me. Pride,” said he on the phone.
The man was arrested on the spot and hospitalized for a few days with stab wounds. Kamel Chebbout’s trial is expected to last several weeks.
The Crown intends to play the defendant’s recorded cell phone calls, “the centerpiece”, to demonstrate the defendant’s mental state at the time the murder was committed.
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