Canadian murder linked to Calder case

Man accused of killing Incline Village woman fled Canada after '93 murder

It was a crime that shocked even homicide-hardened Toronto: a 62-year-old, Hungarian-born grandfather, who had survived the Holocaust and owned a cab company in the city’s downtown, was stabbed to death at his taxi garage in September 1993.

He was killed over a $30,000 diamond ring he wore on a pinky finger that was nearly hacked off by his assailant to secure the prize.

The murder of Bernard Bimbi led to a landmark court case that saw, for the first time in Canada, a young offender face a trial by jury. But Bimbi’s 17-year-old killer was controversially sentenced to just three years for his role in the crime, which investigators claimed had been orchestrated by an older, shadowy figure — 35-year-old Mohamed Kamaludeen — who had allegedly manipulated the youth, grabbed the ring and fled the country.

Now, after almost 15 years as a fugitive from Canadian justice, Kamaludeen is finally in police custody in Reno, Nev., where he was flown in January as part of an extradition deal with Mexican authorities.

But the Guyana native, suspected of arranging Toronto’s infamous “pinky-ring murder,” may never return to Canada to face trial. That’s because Kamaludeen is also facing a first-degree murder charge in the August 2007 stabbing death of University of Nevada professor Judy Calder — a 64-year-old expert in criminal violence whom prosecutors suspect was killed by the former Canadian resident over a failed business deal.

However, Nevada prosecutor Bruce Hahn told Canwest News Service on Thursday that he is “very eager” to learn more about the “pinky-ring murder” because there “may be a critical connection” with the Reno killing.

Notably, as in the Toronto case, Kamaludeen is accused of “hiring or inducing” another man — illegal Filipino immigrant Carlos Filomeno — to carry out the fatal attack on Calder.

In the Bimbi killing, a longtime criminal who testified as a Crown witness described how Kamaludeen had first asked him to murder the businessman before allegedly convincing to the 17-year-old to do the job.

Kamaludeen, the witness told a Toronto court at the youth’s trial in 1996, had flashed $1,000 and told his would-be hit man: “‘Go get him. Knock him out. I want that ring.’”

Calls to police in Toronto were not immediately returned.

In Nevada, Kamaludeen had apparently carved out a good living in a spacious home in an upscale Reno suburb, where neighbors — who knew the man as “Rickey Barge” — said he lived with a woman and owned a Hummer and a Corvette.

Prosecutors believe Kamaludeen owed Calder $150,000 in connection with a business he ran servicing office printers and fax machines.

Investigators determined that she had been stabbed at Kamaludeen’s business last August before her body was dumped in a remote spot hundreds of kilometers north of Reno.

By the time her body was discovered, several days after the killing, Kamaludeen had apparently fled to Mexico, where he was arrested.

Kamaludeen’s extradition from Mexico to the U.S. in January came after Nevada officials promised not to seek the death penalty in the Calder case.

Like Canada, Mexico does not have capital punishment and typically requires a no-execution guarantee before sending a suspected killer across the border.

Kamaludeen is to be formally arraigned next week. Depending on how his trial goes, said Hahn, and whether he receives a sentence of life imprisonment without parole, “Canada can still ask for a piece of him” at some point for the Bimbi killing.

Reached on Thursday at her home in the Toronto suburb of Thornhill, Bimbi’s daughter, Evelyn, said she had no idea Kamaludeen had been arrested.

“I’m really glad you’ve called to tell us they have found him. That’s good news,” she said, adding that the last she’d heard from Toronto police Kamaludeen had been tracked to South America.

“They thought he’d fled there.”

Her husband, Farrell Potok, said Evelyn was “very close to her father” and that his murder “almost cost her her sanity.”

Potok said the killing also destroyed the family business.

“We forfeited the property, which was a huge financial asset,” he said, adding that his father-in-law’s death “caused our family the end of the world — we went from riches to rags.”

Canwest News Service is a Canadian wire service that supplies stories and photos to Canwest papers across the country -- including 10 o the largest dailies in Canada -- and the Global TV network.