Family, friends to give statements after Hamilton man found guilty of stabbing Kitchener woman to death

A 30-year-old Hamilton, Ont., man who was found guilty of stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death is scheduled to return to a Kitchener courtroom on Wednesday where it's expected he'll hear from the woman's family and friends.

Melinda Vasilije, 22, was killed in her Kitchener apartment on April 28, 2017. She was stabbed 47 times by her former boyfriend, Ager Hasan, 27 of those times in her neck and she had six stab wounds to her chest.

Being found guilty of second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 to 25 years. 

Wednesday is the first of three days where family and friends will give victim impact statements before the judge decides how long Hasan must serve before he's eligible for parole.

Hasan was found guilty of second-degree murder in May 2023. He never denied that he stabbed Vasilije, but he claimed it was in self defence. He claimed the two had argued, he blacked out, and then when he came out of it, he realized he had stabbed her.

The jury knew it took two months to arrest Hasan, but not the reasons why. They jury was also told Hasan sent Vasilije's phone a text at 3:39 a.m. on the night of the incident saying he was glad they had worked things out and it was good to see her, even though he very likely knew she was dead.

The jury heard that after stabbing Vasilije, Hasan drove across the border to the U.S. but they were told to discount that information in their deliberations.

The jury was not told that it's believed Hasan posted to social media, such as Reddit, where he outlined his own version of events of what transpired in Vasilije's apartment the night she died. 

The jury also didn't know the circumstances that led to Hasan's arrest on July 11, 2017 by Secret Service agents in San Antonio, Texas. 

Hasan was arrested as part of a counterfeit investigation after an anonymous source reported an individual — identified as Hasan — was placing orders for counterfeit currency via the dark web. The source provided the suspect's description, first name, address and vehicle information.

A traffic stop was initiated and found the vehicle's license plates were stolen in Arkansas. Hasan was in the front passenger seat. A search of the vehicle found Hasan had approximately $600 in counterfeit $20 bills. Due to the outstanding warrant for his arrest in Canada, no U.S. federal counterfeit charges were pursued, the Secret Service said in a press release at the time.

That information wasn't brought before the jury, Justice Gerry Taylor explained, because there's no normal way to behave after a crime.

Hasan had admitted to killing Vasilije — he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter at the start of the trial, a plea the Crown rejected — and Taylor told the members of the jury they couldn't find him guilty on his after-the-fact conduct alone.

After Hasan was found guilty, Vasilije's family was overwhelmed with emotion in the courtroom and declined to speak with reporters.