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A 24-year-old Ottawa man who was convicted in two Ottawa killings has died in prison.
Donald Musselman died Tuesday while in custody in Joyceville Institution, Corrections Canada said in a statement released Wednesday.
Musselman had been serving an indeterminate sentence for second-degree murder since May 21. Corrections Canada did not identify a cause of death.
“As in all cases involving the death of an inmate, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) will review the circumstances. CSC policy requires that the police and the coroner be notified.”
Musselman was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2019 ByWard Market shooting of musician Markland Campbell and was convicted of manslaughter after a 2021 jailhouse beating left fellow inmate Zakaria Sheek-Hussein in a coma. He later died.
Campbell, 42, was shot and killed in the ByWard Market while defending his teenage daughter.
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Campbell, who performed under the stage name Jahiant Jahh with HalfSizeGiants, an Ottawa hip-hop collective that promoted non-violence, had rushed to the market on the night of June 7, 2019, after his daughter told him she had been harassed. Campbell was shot twice during a confrontation with a group of teenagers on the streets, which were packed with revellers enjoying a Toronto Raptors playoff game.
Musselman, who was 18 at the time of the shooting, denied throughout his trial that he killed Campbell and claimed another teenager in his group fired the gun that night. He was also charged with possessing fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking and pleaded guilty to that charge prior to the start of his murder trial.
Musselman was convicted of second-degree murder last December and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years in May.
On Sept. 3, Musselman pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the killing of a fellow inmate while he was awaiting trial at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre.
Musselman told the court he was “deeply sorry to everyone involved” as he was sentenced to another eight years in prison for the “callous” beating death of Sheek-Hussein, 27.
According to the summary of facts, Musselman beat and “stomped” Sheek-Hussein in the washroom of one of the jail’s “day rooms” in the afternoon of Feb. 24, 2021. Sheek-Hussein was rushed to hospital, where he remained in a medically induced coma for five months before dying from his injuries.
Musselman was initially charged with aggravated assault. Sheek-Hussein died on July 23, 2021, and the assault charge against Musselman was upgraded to second-degree murder.
— With files from Aedan Helmer
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