MAX Edwin Tutiven of Toronto has been found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of gas attendant Jayesh Prajapati, 44, in North York on September 15, 2012, in a gas-and-dash incident.
Tutiven pleaded not guilty but he admitted that he hit and dragged Prajapati with his SUV after stealing $112.85 worth of gas. However, he claimed that he never saw Prajapati near his vehicle and only realized that he had hit someone a couple of days later.
Crown attorney told the court that Tutiven felt the impact of hitting Prajapati and heard people yelling at him to stop. A resident of a nearby apartment building testified he could hear the sound of Prajapati being dragged in the wheels of the SUV from his 18th-floor unit, according to the Toronto Star.
It took the jurors six hours on Tuesday to reach a guilty verdict. Prajapati was an immigrant from India and had got Canadian citizenship not long before he died,
Tutiven will be sentenced on November 1.