Appeal denied for man convicted 2020 murder outside Calgary's Portico Lounge

Samuel Lugela was convicted of second-degree murder in the shooting of Abdurahman Indiris on the street outside the Portico Hookah Lounge on Sept. 12, 2020. (File)

The Alberta Court of Appeal has denied an appeal from Samuel Lugela, who was convicted of second-degree murder in connection with a 2020 shooting.

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According to court documents, shots were fired between two vehicles on the street in front of the Portico Hookah Lounge, located in the 1800 block of 35 Street S.E., at 3 a.m. on Sept. 12, 2020.

One of the vehicles remained at the scene. Emergency crews found two injured men inside and both were taken to hospital.

One of the men, identified as Abdurahman Indiris, died in hospital.

Lugela was arrested and charged with second-degree murder two days later.

He was convicted on March 9, 2023, but appealed his case on the basis that the trial judge made a mistake in identifying him at the shooter in the attack, based mainly on the video evidence collected at the scene.

In his appeal, the court said Lugela claimed the evidence was "circumstantial" and provided a reasonable doubt that he was the shooter.

"The appellant also suggests that video identification suffers from the same frailties as eye-witness identification, and should be examined with heightened care on appeal, particularly where the trial judge was white and the appellant black," the court said.

In its decision, the appeal court disagreed with Lugela's explanation and said the trial judge positively identified Lugela as the shooter using that same evidence.

"The trial judge identified the appellant as the shooter based on similarities between the body type, gait, hairstyle, clothes and accessories of the appellant seen on videos from before, during and after the shooting," the court said.

As a result, the appeal court said the video evidence was sufficient and the trial judge's assessment "was reasonable."

Shooting was provoked: Lugela

In his appeal, Lugela also suggested the shooting was provoked by one of the victims, who he says sprayed a substance toward a group of individuals standing outside the Portico Lounge.

He says the victim was shot immediately after that assault.

The appeal court said the trial judge found Lugela's retelling of events had "no air of reality" and found "the test for provocation" had not been met.

"There must be a sudden or unexpected 'wrongful act or insult that would have caused an ordinary person to be deprived of his or her self-control', and that the accused must have subjectively 'acted in response to the provocation…on the sudden before there was time for his or her passion to cool,'" the court said.

The appeal court agreed with the trial judge's understanding that the shooter did not "lose control" and instead acted in a "considered fashion."

All grounds of Lugela's appeal were dismissed.