Maple Batalia was an aspiring actress and model who moved with her family to Canada from India when she was six months old.Photo courtesy of 2011 Central City Model Search Semi Finalists
A man accused of helping his friend kill a woman in Surrey, B.C., has been acquitted of manslaughter, but found guilty of being an accessory to the murder after the fact.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge in New Westminster said Friday that Gursimar Bedi's rental of a Dodge Charger used as a get-away vehicle the night that Maple Batalia was killed was part of the reason for the guilty verdict on the accessory charge.
The 19-year-old Batalia was shot and killed in the parking lot of Simon Fraser University in September 2011.
Her ex-boyfriend, Gurjinder Dhaliwal, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to serve 21 years without parole.
Sgt. Stephanie Ashton, with the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, says the verdict against Bedi should be a reminder that anyone who engages in crime, no matter what their role, will be held responsible.
Bedi, 26, will be in court on June 9 to set a date for sentencing.
Dhaliwal pleaded guilty to second-degree murder earlier this year, admitting to killing his former girlfriend in the parking lot of the university's Surrey campus after he saw her studying with a male classmate in September 2011. He was originally charged with first-degree murder.
An agreed statement of facts described how Dhaliwal became enraged and shot Batalia three times in the back before slashing her head with a knife before fleeing.
Batalia was an aspiring actress and model who moved with her family to Canada from India when she was six months old. She wanted to become a doctor and was studying health sciences at the time of her death.