Two years after being convicted of causing the death of his wife by a violent sexual assault, Mansour Jalali has finally been sentenced.
Superior Court Justice Michael Brown imposed a 10-year term for manslaughter. But with pre-sentence credit, he has two years less a day left to serve.
Susan Chen, the 40-year-old mother of his five children and a dedicated Sick Kids hospital nurse, was anally raped by Jalali and left to bleed to death in their Scarborough home on Apr. 3, 2019.
“Like so many other victims of intimate partner homicide, Susan was senselessly taken from us far too soon,” her family wrote in a statement. “Susan was a selfless and devoted spouse, mother, daughter, sister, and aunt who dedicated her career to helping others as a nurse, making a lasting impact on countless lives.
“Her love for her children, family, and friends was unconditional, and that love was deeply returned. This profound and heartbreaking tragedy has left the world without an extraordinary soul, and her absence will be felt by all who knew her.”
Superior Court Justice Michael Brown convicted Jalali of manslaughter in February 2023 but he continually delayed sentencing by firing his lawyer and filing different motions. In court on Friday, Jalali was still protesting his innocence and claiming he was a political prisoner framed for single-handedly eliminating the Israeli secret service.
“We are all happy this is done so the family can go on with their lives,” said Crown attorney Dimitra Tsagaris.
A longtime victim of intimate partner violence, Chen confided in friends and her daughter that Jalali had threatened to kill her. She also made secret recordings of her husband’s threats to beat and rape her and sent them to her mom for safekeeping.
He claimed he was joking, but the judge found otherwise.
“I also find that he meant what he said on the recordings and that he intended to threaten the deceased and did threaten the deceased with violence, including threats of sexual assault,” Brown wrote in his 2023 ruling.
On March 26, 2019, he was apprehended under the Mental Health Act. Chen said he had tried to kill her and told a friend she was in danger if he was released.
A week later, she was dead.
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Brown acquitted Jalali of second-degree murder and found him guilty of the lesser offence of manslaughter after finding the Crown failed to prove his intention was to kill Chen when he violently raped her.
In her victim impact statement delivered in June 2024, the daughter who found her mother’s body said Jalali made their home “a house of horrors.”
“I shouldn’t have had to see the horrible things he did, the blood in every corner. I shouldn’t have had to see her laying there, convincing myself she would wake up. I shouldn’t have had to beg the paramedics to keep trying.“
Jalali has been ordered to have no contact with his children now and during the three years of probation following his sentence – a prohibition he strenuously opposed.
“You don’t want my children to visit me even if they want to? That is the proof that I’m a political prisoner.”
Brown declined to change the condition.