By Canadian Press

Man convicted of killing woman in fatal Calgary gas and dash gets 11 years

Aug 30, 2017 | 2:15 AM

CALGARY — The mother of a Calgary gas-station worker who was killed trying to stop a man from stealing fuel says she feels sorry for him.

Kobra Mohammadi and her son Mohammad Rashidi came to Calgary from Iran this week to attend the sentencing hearing for Joshua Cody Mitchell.

Mitchell, 22, was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years for manslaughter in the 2015 death and an additional year for hit and run, with 3 1/2 years of credit for time served. He is also prohibited from driving for the rest of his life.

“I feel bad for him,” Mohammadi said through an interpreter. “I’m a mom and I feel bad for his mom as well. I don’t want to see my kid in this situation.”

“I have confused feelings. I don’t know if I can forgive him for sure… this was not manslaughter, this was murder.”

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Maryam Rashidi, who was 35, died two years ago when Mitchell ran over her as he drove away without paying for $113 worth of fuel.

Rashidi and her husband came to Canada from Iran in 2014 because she wanted a better life for their son. She had been working at the Centex gas station for just two weeks after being laid off from her engineering job during Calgary’s economic downturn.

Justice Alan Macleod said Mitchell did not intend to kill Rashidi.

“There was no intent to seriously injure, but the risks were patently obvious.”

Mitchell spoke before he was sentenced.

“I’d like to apologize to the family and friends of Ms. Rashidi for the … pain and suffering I have caused their family. If I could take back what I’ve done, I would, and if I had the chance to replace Ms. Rashidi I would.”

In his victim impact statement, Rashidi’s brother said he’s haunted by thoughts of his sister’s final moments when she was lying on the ground “like a rag doll.”

“I did not live any single day without thinking and experiencing flashbacks of what scenarios happened to my sister in that crime incident,” Mohammad Rashidi wrote in a victim impact statement read in court as his mother wept quietly.

“Maryam was a genius girl who studied chemical engineering in the most top-rated university of Iran. She was so kind and did not hurt even a tiny creature during her life. Now she is far, far away from us.”

Rashidi’s husband wrote a statement before he died in a traffic accident in June.

“Some things that you lose you recover over time. Other losses are immeasurable and can never be retrieved. For instance, the loss of innocence of a child whose mother was taken from him,” Ahmad Nourani Shallo wrote.

“How could anyone replace that absence? How could I replace that role?”

Rashidi and Shallo had one son, who survived the crash that killed his father.

Shallo wrote that the reaction of Rashidi’s family to her death was heartbreaking.

“What would be your answer when you are asked by your deceased wife’s family why did you let her work in a gas station? I don’t know how you could answer that question … I couldn’t,” he said.

“I was silent on the phone knowing the family of my wife believe that I am responsible.”

The trial heard that Rashidi chased the truck across a parking lot and onto the busy Trans-Canada Highway where the vehicle got stuck in traffic. She banged on the passenger window, stood in front of the truck with her hands up and then scrambled onto the hood.

She was run over after the truck swerved and she fell off.

— Follow @BillGraveland on Twitter

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press