MANDEL: Halloween slasher sentenced to 11 years, fatally stabbed victim in heart
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One young man is gone forever, while his killer is headed to a federal prison to serve what’s left of an 11-year prison sentence for stabbing him to death outside a frat house in a senseless Halloween slashing spree that injured six others.
“Keep your chin up,” his angry father shouted to Jacob Alves, as the 24-year-old was led away in the downtown Toronto courtroom on Tuesday. “This was all lies. The truth will come out.”
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But that is the blindness of a father’s love. The truth is that his son stabbed an unarmed Firdaws Nabizada to death in a frenzy of violence after being kicked out of a party at a Madison Ave. frat house on Halloween 2019. And for that, after credit for his time in custody, Alves has another three years and three months to serve.
Superior Court Justice Kelly Byrne outlined the facts of that tragic night: Nabizada, who fled here with his family from Afghanistan, had gone to the Annex with friends to celebrate Halloween and ended up outside the frat house that had a line-up of people waiting to pay to get in.
Alves had been kicked out of the party after getting into a fight and pulling a knife — with a resident sustaining a bite to his leg in efforts to eject him. As he banged on the door to get back in, the president of the frat tried to calm him down. For his efforts, Alves stabbed him in the shoulder.
A partygoer tried to intervene and Alves stabbed him in the leg. When another man who knew Alves from high school tried to calm him down, he stabbed him in the bicep, the mid-back and lower back, resulting in life-threatening injuries.
After a witness went to help the injured partygoer, he got into a fight with Alves, during which he was stabbed in the hand, thigh and abdomen — also resulting in life-threatening injuries. His friend rushed to his aid and was stabbed by Alves in the bicep.
They all survived. Nabizada, 19, would not be as lucky.
He and his friends were on the lawn of 22 Madison when Alves approached them — they got into a verbal fight, which eventually led them across the street to an alley. “Once there, Mr. Alves grabbed Mr. Nabizada and stabbed him in the heart with a knife. Mr. Nabizada ran down the street. Mr. Alves chased after him,” Byrne said. “I find that Mr. Nabizada was completely unarmed at the time Mr. Alves stabbed him.”
Nabizada’s friends took him to a hospital, where he died Nov. 2, 2019.
In July 2023, jurors acquitted Alves of second-degree murder — he testified he was too high to remember what he did — and instead convicted him of manslaughter as well as six assault-related charges.
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Crown attorneys Scott Patterson and Craig Brannagan had urged Byrne to sentence him to 12 years for the fatal stabbing and a consecutive five years for the assaults. Defence lawyer Sid Freeman argued for a six-year term, which would essentially set her client free after credit for his harsh time in custody.
But that would hardly be enough to denounce the attack that claimed the life of a promising young man and seriously injured six others.
“It is highly aggravating that Mr. Alves was the only one armed with a knife. Mr. Alves made the choice to arm himself with a knife before he consumed any alcohol or drugs, and before he attended the party,” the judge said.
“Despite the fact that hundreds of young people gathered on this street to celebrate Halloween, the crowd was peaceful and easy. That is, other than Mr. Alves. I find that Mr. Alves was in every instance the aggressor and that each victim was simply responding to his aggression either to protect themselves or someone else.”
Byrne gave him credit for being a youthful first-offender who has the unwavering support of his friends and family. While Alves was found with two “fashioned knives” early in his incarceration at the Toronto East jail, she said, he hasn’t been in trouble since September 2021.
“He admitted that he alone caused the death of Mr. Nabizada and injured the six other victims. This clear demonstration of remorse also bodes well for his rehabilitation and is deserving of mitigation.”
Alves, she said, is very much on the “right track.”
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