Man pleads guilty to lesser charge in Booth Street death

An 18-year-old man accused of accessory to murder in last year’s Booth Street shooting pleaded guilty to a lesser charge Wednesday.

Ottawa Police caught Zakaria Dourhnou cleaning blood out of a car in the middle of the night, less than a day after 16-year-old Yazden Ghiasi was fatally shot in the vehicle.

Dourhnou pleaded guilty to attempting to obstruct justice and a breach of probation.

Ghiasi was shot in the heart and dumped from a blue Nissan Maxima in the morning of Dec. 6 after meeting for an alleged drug deal.

Police used eyewitness descriptions to track the car and watched Dourhnou and Khaled Wehbe clean the car with paper towels, rags and cleaning product CLR in the early hours of Dec. 7 before arresting them. 

Dourhnou’s sentencing hearing will take place March 25.

Wehbe still faces charges of accessory to murder in the case while another man, Abdulhamid Wehbe, has been charged with second degree murder.

An arrest warrant for second-degree murder has been issued for Mohamed Wehbe, who authorities believe has fled the country.

However, CBC Ottawa is reporting that he's expected to land in Montreal Wednesday afternoon on a flight from Paris, where he will be arrested.