A mistrial has been declared in the case of two men accused of shooting Jordan Manners to death in a Toronto high school in 2007.
Ontario Superior Court Judge Ian Nordheimer declared the mistrial Friday afternoon after the 11-member jury was unable to agree on a verdict against two 20-year-old men charged with first-degree murder in the death of the 15-year-old Manners. The jurors had deliberated for four days.
Both accused had pleaded not guilty. The two men can be identified only as J.W. and C.D., because they were 17 at the time of the shooting.
Lawyers for both sides are to appear in court on April 1 to set a date for a new trial.
Manners, a Grade 9 student, was killed on May 23, 2007, inside his school, C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute, located at Keele Street and Finch Avenue West in northwest Toronto.
Shortly before Nordheimer declared the mistrial, he read a note from the jurors explaining that they had reviewed all the evidence, but remained deadlocked. At that point, Manners's mother left the courtroom abruptly with other relatives, telling reporters outside, "I have no words for this."
Defence lawyer Donald McLeod said his client feels "terrible" about the outcome of the trial.
"He's been going through this since 2007," McLeod said. "He would want it to be over today so he can go home to his family."
The Crown told court that Manners was shot in the chest in a stairwell during a robbery. However, defence lawyers argued that the robbery never happened and there was no physical evidence such as DNA or gunshot residue to link the accused to the killing.
Earlier in the week, the judge suggested two witnesses had lied during the proceedings and expressed concerns that their lies had undermined the trial process. The teenage girls gave accounts in court that differed from the statements they gave to police, and they were not able to identify the accused in court. Nordheimer has called on the attorney general to investigate.
Mistrial in Manners murder case
The worst fears of all sides were realized when the first-degree murder trial of two young men accused of killing Jordan Manners ended in a mistrial Friday.
The jury announced in a letter it couldn’t reach an unanimous verdict for the second day in a row — deadlocked after four days of deliberations. Justice Ian Nordheimer then declared the mistrial.
“I think everybody wanted a definite answer in this case, whether it was an acquittal or a conviction,” said Det. Sgt. Mike Barsky, the investigating officer. “No one wants a mistrial.
“Certainly, for the Manners family, this is not a victory. But the reality is that this isn’t over. This will continue on and we will pursue justice within the system and hopefully when we come back here that will be remedied.”
Jordan’s family members and friends rushed out of the court, visibly upset by the outcome. Young friends covered their faces and raced past a phalanx of photographers.
Both the Crown and defence counsel will be back in court April 1 to set a date for a second trial for J.W. and C.D., who are accused of first-degree murder in the first fatal shooting in a Toronto school.
The 15-year-old Manners was gunned down with a shot to his heart at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate on May 23, 2007.
The prosecution alleged the accused, both now 20 years old, grabbed Jordan and that J.W. shot him with a .25 mm handgun while C.D. rifled through Jordan’s pocket and handed J.W. some of the contents.
The accused cannot be named because they were 17 at the time of the murder.
The prosecution case was undermined when some key Crown witnesses recanted at trial after giving incriminating evidence against the accused in police statements and at the preliminary hearing.
One of them, Y.M., who expressed fear she would be identified when giving her videotaped statement to police within seven hours of Jordan’s murder, identified the accused as the culprits and echoed the same account at the preliminary hearing. She was assured by police she wouldn’t be identified.
Seven hours after Jordan’s shooting, Y.M. entered the York Regional Police station with her aunt and cousin, but she feared getting involved in this incident. “I saw it with my own two eyes,” she told her relatives, not realizing she was being recorded, hours before her official interview started.
The prosecution alleged that fear motivated both Y.M. and another witness, S.D., who were in proximity to Jordan when he collapsed, to change their story. At trial, they gave identical explanations for their new account: They hadn’t seen the event, but were merely repeating classroom rumours and gossip.
Y.M., whom Barsky called “pivotal” to his investigation, barely raised her head or her voice in court as she testified.
Fear took key Crown witnesses hostage when they denied seeing “the terrible event” of Manners collapsing from a bullet wound, Crown attorney Tom Lissaman said in his closing address to the jury Monday.
The prosecution was asking the jury to believe the videotaped statement accounts of the reluctant witnesses because it was corroborated by other forensic evidence such as the location of the gunshot wound, which burned Jordan’s jacket zipper.
The reluctant witnesses’ testimony hamstrung the prosecution case. The trial judge said the witnesses admitted they lied and possibly lied at trial. Nordheimer asked the Attorney General to review the witnesses’ conduct, which he said “undermined the process.” The Attorney General said it wouldn’t be appropriate or fair to comment on a matter before the courts.
On Wednesday and Thursday this week — while the jury was sequestered — the downtown courthouse appeared under siege with heightened security and heavily armed Emergency Task Force officers surrounding the building after eight men wearing the blue and white colours of the Driftwood Crips were spotted outside the University Avenue courthouse.
“When people wearing gang colours don’t enter a courthouse (armed with weapons and metal detection systems), it generally means they are packing guns,” Barsky said in an interview. Rumours swirled that someone planned to smuggle a gun into the building, but Barsky said there was no substance to the rumour.
No one showed up in gang apparel Friday.
“We will be having another trial,” Lissaman said. “We recognize the very difficult task the jury had in this case and the efforts they made to come to a just verdict.
“Our hearts go out to Jordan (Manners’) family, particularly his mother, at this time.”
Lawyers' clients 'extremely upset'
Lawyers representing two young men accused in the murder of a student at a Toronto high school expressed their disappointment by the hung jury Friday.
Lawyers for both accused, known only as J.W. and C.D. because they were minors at the time of the murder on May 23, 2007, at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate, expressed frustration and disappointment, saying their clients are innocent but for three years have been facing the most serious charge in the Criminal Code.
Defence counsel Alanna Barnes who, along with co-counsel Lydia Riva, represented C.D., said they were "extremely upset" by the decision and her client was "very disappointed."
"He has had this hanging over his head for three years and it seemed from the jury's questions there was a reasonable doubt, but we don't know how much doubt. We know the jury took their time and took this seriously," Barnes told reporters.
J.W.'s lawyer, Donald McLeod, urged police to continue their investigation and charge the people "responsible for Jordan's death" and for the attorney general to review the conduct of two key Crown witnesses who recanted earlier statements.
"There have been misrepresentations made and the conduct of the young witnesses has taken its toll in this case. The Crown shouldn't have gone ahead with these people as their strongest witnesses," McLeod said.
"My client, J.W., feels terribly and has been going through this since 2007. He wanted this to be over so he could go home with his family. For an individual sitting inside a jail, it's a really difficult thing to be grappling with."
Prolonging the process is also painful for the Manners family, McLeod said.
"The reality is a 15-year-old boy was shot and they want the people responsible for this murder brought to justice," he said.
Asked if he'd seek a judge-alone instead of a jury trial next time, McLeod said it was premature to consider that.
"I wouldn't say we lost hope in the jury system."
Fear fuelling gun violence
"We knew this was going to be a mistrial, We just knew it"
So much has changed, yet so much remains the same since Toronto's innocence slipped away along with 15-year-old Jordan Manner's last breath in the halls of C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute on May 23, 2007.
"We equate this to a Columbine type of crime," Toronto Police Det.-Sgt. Mike Barsky said Friday outside court, looking obviously dejected after his case against Manners' alleged killers ended in a mistrial.
"This is the first time we've had an active shooter in a Toronto school, during school hours," the homicide investigator explained.
Since that fateful day nearly three years ago, the Toronto District School Board commissioned a study on school safety by Julian Falconer.
Now dubbed the Falconer Report, it found there were major problems within the city's schools with a "gang mentality" and bullying topping the list.
But the study also revealed there was a serious disconnect between students and staff, among many other things.
That report led to police officers being placed within a select number of schools around the city.
Known as school resource officers, their job is to improve relations between youth and police while deterring crime and being at the ready in case trouble erupts.
Ironically, C.W. Jefferys opted not to have an officer within its walls, a building southeast of Keele St. and Finch Ave. W. that looks more like a fortress than a place of learning, with an array of security cameras mounted within steel cages.
If only Toronto's youth could be so easily protected.
"Certainly we have to do business better, not only from the police perspective but also from the school board's perspective," Barsky said of ensuring the future safety of students.
What hasn't changed over the past three years is Toronto's ability to persuade young people to come forward with information when they know a crime has been committed.
The thugs still seem to be running the show, something that became painfully obvious during the Manners' trial.
Not only did two key witnesses change their testimony once they were on the stand, but a group of apparent gang-bangers showed up wearing their colours outside the courthouse as the jury was deliberating this week, creating such a stir that police had to bring in Emergency Task Force officers and mounted units in case there was trouble.
Kemi Omololu-Olunloyo, an outspoken advocate for Crime Stoppers, could barely contain her disgust Friday.
"I'm really angry," she said after learning of the mistrial.
Omololu-Olunloyo, who now lives in Ottawa, worked with the families of about half a dozen Toronto murder victims, helping them through the difficult aftermath.
She followed the Manners' trial along with Clemee Joseph, who lost her son, Jarvis St. Remy, 18, to gun violence nearly a year ago.
"We knew this was going to be a mistrial," Omololu-Olunloyo said. "We just knew it."
She pointed out that this isn't the first time a murder case has fallen apart because of frightened witnesses.
"Look what Abdikarim's trial turned into," she said, recalling the case against two men charged with first-degree murder in the March 14, 2008, slaying of an 18-year-old in Lawrence Heights.
Abdikarim Ahmed Abdikarim's slaying was captured on surveillance cameras, but even that wasn't enough to get a conviction, because the five friends who were with the teen and were also injured in the shooting refused to talk.
The two accused, Owen Anthony Smith and Wendell Damian Cuff, walked out of jail free men a little over a year ago.
"Now we've got these two girls who have either lied to police or lied on the stand," Omololu-Olunloyo.
"They should charge these girls and send a message to other young people," Omololu-Olunloyo said. "Yes, there is a downside, but too many of our youth already won't talk to the police."
Families mourn
She has also worked closely with the relatives of Adrian Johnston, 14, William Junior Appiah, 18, St. Remy, and Kenneth Mark, 29.
Omololu-Olunloyo said of those families only Mark's relatives have seen an arrest in their loved one's murder.
"Kenneth Mark's family, they got an arrest," she said. "But three years from now when it comes time for the trial, what's going to happen? This sort of thing?
"Someone already got acquitted for shooting him with a pellet gun, so are they going to get acquitted again?"
Mark testified last year against a teen charged with shooting him with a pellet gun. The accused was freed in December and two weeks later Mark was shot again, this time with a real gun.
Omololu-Olunloyo said she's convinced nothing will change until witnesses are truly protected.
"We have to let these kids know that they can tell the truth and we will protect them," she said. "They have to feel they are safe."
Crown questions gunman's intent
A Crown attorney suggested that a gunman who fatally shot an innocent Toronto man on Yonge St. was lying when he testified he never intended to kill anyone.
Prosecutor Hank Goody told the jury to reject gunman Edward Paredes’ account that he meant only to frighten bouncer Shane Knox outside the Brass Rail strip club in the early hours of Jan. 12, 2008.
“If he had only meant to scare Knox, he could have just racked the gun (which makes a loud sound as a bullet is chambered) as he did earlier,” Goody said in his closing address to the jury.
“There was no need for Paredes to actually pull the trigger.”
He encouraged the jury to convict both Paredes, the alleged gunman, and his best friend, Awet Zekarias, who allegedly prodded him to shoot at the bouncers who had ejected them from the club.
Paredes, 24, and Zekarias, 25, are charged with second-degree murder. They have pleaded not guilty to murder, but Paredes pleaded guilty to manslaughter for firing the fatal bullet.
John O’Keefe, a 42-year-old father, was walking home northbound along Yonge St. from a pub when he was struck by a bullet and died instantly.
Court heard both Zekarias and Paredes were walking southbound away from the bar, when bouncer Shane Knox waved Zekarias’ cellphone, taunting him, “Come and get your phone, you pussy.”
Paredes was a trained and accurate marksman who knew his gun “was capable of being used as a lethal weapon,” Goody said.
Goody said Zekarias’ story — in which he denied saying he exhorted Paredes to fire the fatal bullet — should also be rejected. The fact Zekarias fled from the crime scene with Paredes showed Zekarias participated by inciting Paredes, Goody said.
The trial will continue Tuesday.
Lawyers frustrated by hung jury
Lawyers representing two young men accused in the murder of a student at a Toronto high school expressed their disappointment by the hung jury Friday.
Justice Ian Nordheimer declared a mistrial after the jury sent a second note indicating it couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict. A second trial date will be set on April 1.
Lawyers for both accused, known only as J.W. and C.D. because they were minors at the time of the murder, May 23, 2007 at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate, expressed frustration and disappointment, saying their clients are innocent but for three years have been facing the most serious charge in the Criminal Code.
Defence counsel Alanna Barnes who, along with co-counsel Lydia Riva, represented C.D., said they were “extremely upset” by the decision and her client was “very disappointed.”
“He has had this hanging over his head for three years and it seemed from the jury’s questions there was a reasonable doubt, but we don’t know how much doubt. We know the jury took their time and took this seriously,” Barnes told reporters.
J.W.’s lawyer, Donald McLeod, urged police to continue their investigation and charge the people “responsible for Jordan’s death” and for the Attorney General to review the conduct of two key Crown witnesses who recanted earlier statements.
“There have been misrepresentations made and the conduct of the young witnesses has taken its toll in this case. The Crown shouldn’t have gone ahead with these people as their strongest witnesses,” McLeod said.
“My client J.W. feels terribly and has been going through this since 2007. He wanted this to be over so he could home with his family. For an individual sitting inside a jail, it’s a really difficult thing to be grappling with.”
Prolonging the process is also painful for the Manners family, McLeod said.
“The reality is a 15-year-old boy was shot and they want the people responsible for this murder brought to justice,” he said.
Asked if he would seek a judge-alone instead of a judge-and-jury trial next time, McLeod said it was premature to consider that.
“I wouldn’t say we lost hope in the jury system.”
Defence lawyers for the two men argued the prosecution failed to meet “its onus of proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“There is no evidence that J.W. conspired with anyone to murder Jordan,” said McLeod, saying J.W. was a friend of Jordan’s.
Riva said the prosecution’s case was undermined by a lack of physical evidence.
She said witnesses offered conflicting testimony based on “gossip and rumours, not actually truth.” There was another youth who could have been the shooter, Riva said.
Det. Sgt. Mike Barsky said he and his partner, now retired Det. Sgt. Chris Buck, “evaluated every piece of evidence in this case, we criticized every piece of evidence and we determined at the end of the day that these two had the exclusive opportunity to commit this act as alleged in court.”
“These are the people responsible for this,” Barsky said.
He said he understood that families for the accused and the victim are frustrated by the outcome.
“I think everybody wanted a definite answer in this case, whether it was an acquittal or a conviction. Now there will be another trial,” Barsky said.
Mistrial in Manners murder case
The worst fears of all sides were realized when the first-degree murder trial of two young men accused of killing Jordan Manners ended in a mistrial Friday.
The jury announced in a letter it couldn’t reach an unanimous verdict for the second day in a row — deadlocked after four days of deliberations. Justice Ian Nordheimer then declared the mistrial.
“I think everybody wanted a definite answer in this case, whether it was an acquittal or a conviction,” said Det. Sgt. Mike Barsky, the investigating officer. “No one wants a mistrial.
“Certainly, for the Manners family, this is not a victory. But the reality is that this isn’t over. This will continue on and we will pursue justice within the system and hopefully when we come back here that will be remedied.”
Jordan’s family members and friends rushed out of the court, visibly upset by the outcome. Young friends covered their faces and raced past a phalanx of photographers.
Both the Crown and defence counsel will be back in court April 1 to set a date for a second trial for J.W. and C.D., who are accused of first-degree murder in the first fatal shooting in a Toronto school.
The 15-year-old Manners was gunned down with a shot to his heart at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate on May 23, 2007.
The prosecution alleged the accused, both now 20 years old, grabbed Jordan and that J.W. shot him with a .25 mm handgun while C.D. rifled through Jordan’s pocket and handed J.W. some of the contents.
The accused cannot be named because they were 17 at the time of the murder.
The prosecution case was undermined when some key Crown witnesses recanted at trial after giving incriminating evidence against the accused in police statements and at the preliminary hearing.
One of them, Y.M., who expressed fear she would be identified when giving her videotaped statement to police within seven hours of Jordan’s murder, identified the accused as the culprits and echoed the same account at the preliminary hearing. She was assured by police she wouldn’t be identified.
Seven hours after Jordan’s shooting, Y.M. entered the York Regional Police station with her aunt and cousin, but she feared getting involved in this incident. “I saw it with my own two eyes,” she told her relatives, not realizing she was being recorded, hours before her official interview started.
The prosecution alleged that fear motivated both Y.M. and another witness, S.D., who were in proximity to Jordan when he collapsed, to change their story. At trial, they gave identical explanations for their new account: They hadn’t seen the event, but were merely repeating classroom rumours and gossip.
Y.M., whom Barsky called “pivotal” to his investigation, barely raised her head or her voice in court as she testified.
Fear took key Crown witnesses hostage when they denied seeing “the terrible event” of Manners collapsing from a bullet wound, Crown attorney Tom Lissaman said in his closing address to the jury Monday.
The prosecution was asking the jury to believe the videotaped statement accounts of the reluctant witnesses because it was corroborated by other forensic evidence such as the location of the gunshot wound, which burned Jordan’s jacket zipper.
The reluctant witnesses’ testimony hamstrung the prosecution case. The trial judge said the witnesses admitted they lied and possibly lied at trial. Nordheimer asked the Attorney General to review the witnesses’ conduct, which he said “undermined the process.” The Attorney General said it wouldn’t be appropriate or fair to comment on a matter before the courts.
On Wednesday and Thursday this week — while the jury was sequestered — the downtown courthouse appeared under siege with heightened security and heavily armed Emergency Task Force officers surrounding the building after eight men wearing the blue and white colours of the Driftwood Crips were spotted outside the University Avenue courthouse.
“When people wearing gang colours don’t enter a courthouse (armed with weapons and metal detection systems), it generally means they are packing guns,” Barsky said in an interview. Rumours swirled that someone planned to smuggle a gun into the building, but Barsky said there was no substance to the rumour.
No one showed up in gang apparel Friday.
“We will be having another trial,” Lissaman said. “We recognize the very difficult task the jury had in this case and the efforts they made to come to a just verdict.
“Our hearts go out to Jordan (Manners’) family, particularly his mother, at this time.”
Lawyers' clients 'extremely upset'
Lawyers representing two young men accused in the murder of a student at a Toronto high school expressed their disappointment by the hung jury Friday.
Lawyers for both accused, known only as J.W. and C.D. because they were minors at the time of the murder on May 23, 2007, at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate, expressed frustration and disappointment, saying their clients are innocent but for three years have been facing the most serious charge in the Criminal Code.
Defence counsel Alanna Barnes who, along with co-counsel Lydia Riva, represented C.D., said they were "extremely upset" by the decision and her client was "very disappointed."
"He has had this hanging over his head for three years and it seemed from the jury's questions there was a reasonable doubt, but we don't know how much doubt. We know the jury took their time and took this seriously," Barnes told reporters.
J.W.'s lawyer, Donald McLeod, urged police to continue their investigation and charge the people "responsible for Jordan's death" and for the attorney general to review the conduct of two key Crown witnesses who recanted earlier statements.
"There have been misrepresentations made and the conduct of the young witnesses has taken its toll in this case. The Crown shouldn't have gone ahead with these people as their strongest witnesses," McLeod said.
"My client, J.W., feels terribly and has been going through this since 2007. He wanted this to be over so he could go home with his family. For an individual sitting inside a jail, it's a really difficult thing to be grappling with."
Prolonging the process is also painful for the Manners family, McLeod said.
"The reality is a 15-year-old boy was shot and they want the people responsible for this murder brought to justice," he said.
Asked if he'd seek a judge-alone instead of a jury trial next time, McLeod said it was premature to consider that.
"I wouldn't say we lost hope in the jury system."
Fear fuelling gun violence
"We knew this was going to be a mistrial, We just knew it"
So much has changed, yet so much remains the same since Toronto's innocence slipped away along with 15-year-old Jordan Manner's last breath in the halls of C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute on May 23, 2007.
"We equate this to a Columbine type of crime," Toronto Police Det.-Sgt. Mike Barsky said Friday outside court, looking obviously dejected after his case against Manners' alleged killers ended in a mistrial.
"This is the first time we've had an active shooter in a Toronto school, during school hours," the homicide investigator explained.
Since that fateful day nearly three years ago, the Toronto District School Board commissioned a study on school safety by Julian Falconer.
Now dubbed the Falconer Report, it found there were major problems within the city's schools with a "gang mentality" and bullying topping the list.
But the study also revealed there was a serious disconnect between students and staff, among many other things.
That report led to police officers being placed within a select number of schools around the city.
Known as school resource officers, their job is to improve relations between youth and police while deterring crime and being at the ready in case trouble erupts.
Ironically, C.W. Jefferys opted not to have an officer within its walls, a building southeast of Keele St. and Finch Ave. W. that looks more like a fortress than a place of learning, with an array of security cameras mounted within steel cages.
If only Toronto's youth could be so easily protected.
"Certainly we have to do business better, not only from the police perspective but also from the school board's perspective," Barsky said of ensuring the future safety of students.
What hasn't changed over the past three years is Toronto's ability to persuade young people to come forward with information when they know a crime has been committed.
The thugs still seem to be running the show, something that became painfully obvious during the Manners' trial.
Not only did two key witnesses change their testimony once they were on the stand, but a group of apparent gang-bangers showed up wearing their colours outside the courthouse as the jury was deliberating this week, creating such a stir that police had to bring in Emergency Task Force officers and mounted units in case there was trouble.
Kemi Omololu-Olunloyo, an outspoken advocate for Crime Stoppers, could barely contain her disgust Friday.
"I'm really angry," she said after learning of the mistrial.
Omololu-Olunloyo, who now lives in Ottawa, worked with the families of about half a dozen Toronto murder victims, helping them through the difficult aftermath.
She followed the Manners' trial along with Clemee Joseph, who lost her son, Jarvis St. Remy, 18, to gun violence nearly a year ago.
"We knew this was going to be a mistrial," Omololu-Olunloyo said. "We just knew it."
She pointed out that this isn't the first time a murder case has fallen apart because of frightened witnesses.
"Look what Abdikarim's trial turned into," she said, recalling the case against two men charged with first-degree murder in the March 14, 2008, slaying of an 18-year-old in Lawrence Heights.
Abdikarim Ahmed Abdikarim's slaying was captured on surveillance cameras, but even that wasn't enough to get a conviction, because the five friends who were with the teen and were also injured in the shooting refused to talk.
The two accused, Owen Anthony Smith and Wendell Damian Cuff, walked out of jail free men a little over a year ago.
"Now we've got these two girls who have either lied to police or lied on the stand," Omololu-Olunloyo.
"They should charge these girls and send a message to other young people," Omololu-Olunloyo said. "Yes, there is a downside, but too many of our youth already won't talk to the police."
Families mourn
She has also worked closely with the relatives of Adrian Johnston, 14, William Junior Appiah, 18, St. Remy, and Kenneth Mark, 29.
Omololu-Olunloyo said of those families only Mark's relatives have seen an arrest in their loved one's murder.
"Kenneth Mark's family, they got an arrest," she said. "But three years from now when it comes time for the trial, what's going to happen? This sort of thing?
"Someone already got acquitted for shooting him with a pellet gun, so are they going to get acquitted again?"
Mark testified last year against a teen charged with shooting him with a pellet gun. The accused was freed in December and two weeks later Mark was shot again, this time with a real gun.
Omololu-Olunloyo said she's convinced nothing will change until witnesses are truly protected.
"We have to let these kids know that they can tell the truth and we will protect them," she said. "They have to feel they are safe."
Crown questions gunman's intent
A Crown attorney suggested that a gunman who fatally shot an innocent Toronto man on Yonge St. was lying when he testified he never intended to kill anyone.
Prosecutor Hank Goody told the jury to reject gunman Edward Paredes’ account that he meant only to frighten bouncer Shane Knox outside the Brass Rail strip club in the early hours of Jan. 12, 2008.
“If he had only meant to scare Knox, he could have just racked the gun (which makes a loud sound as a bullet is chambered) as he did earlier,” Goody said in his closing address to the jury.
“There was no need for Paredes to actually pull the trigger.”
He encouraged the jury to convict both Paredes, the alleged gunman, and his best friend, Awet Zekarias, who allegedly prodded him to shoot at the bouncers who had ejected them from the club.
Paredes, 24, and Zekarias, 25, are charged with second-degree murder. They have pleaded not guilty to murder, but Paredes pleaded guilty to manslaughter for firing the fatal bullet.
John O’Keefe, a 42-year-old father, was walking home northbound along Yonge St. from a pub when he was struck by a bullet and died instantly.
Court heard both Zekarias and Paredes were walking southbound away from the bar, when bouncer Shane Knox waved Zekarias’ cellphone, taunting him, “Come and get your phone, you pussy.”
Paredes was a trained and accurate marksman who knew his gun “was capable of being used as a lethal weapon,” Goody said.
Goody said Zekarias’ story — in which he denied saying he exhorted Paredes to fire the fatal bullet — should also be rejected. The fact Zekarias fled from the crime scene with Paredes showed Zekarias participated by inciting Paredes, Goody said.
The trial will continue Tuesday.
Lawyers frustrated by hung jury
Lawyers representing two young men accused in the murder of a student at a Toronto high school expressed their disappointment by the hung jury Friday.
Justice Ian Nordheimer declared a mistrial after the jury sent a second note indicating it couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict. A second trial date will be set on April 1.
Lawyers for both accused, known only as J.W. and C.D. because they were minors at the time of the murder, May 23, 2007 at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate, expressed frustration and disappointment, saying their clients are innocent but for three years have been facing the most serious charge in the Criminal Code.
Defence counsel Alanna Barnes who, along with co-counsel Lydia Riva, represented C.D., said they were “extremely upset” by the decision and her client was “very disappointed.”
“He has had this hanging over his head for three years and it seemed from the jury’s questions there was a reasonable doubt, but we don’t know how much doubt. We know the jury took their time and took this seriously,” Barnes told reporters.
J.W.’s lawyer, Donald McLeod, urged police to continue their investigation and charge the people “responsible for Jordan’s death” and for the Attorney General to review the conduct of two key Crown witnesses who recanted earlier statements.
“There have been misrepresentations made and the conduct of the young witnesses has taken its toll in this case. The Crown shouldn’t have gone ahead with these people as their strongest witnesses,” McLeod said.
“My client J.W. feels terribly and has been going through this since 2007. He wanted this to be over so he could home with his family. For an individual sitting inside a jail, it’s a really difficult thing to be grappling with.”
Prolonging the process is also painful for the Manners family, McLeod said.
“The reality is a 15-year-old boy was shot and they want the people responsible for this murder brought to justice,” he said.
Asked if he would seek a judge-alone instead of a judge-and-jury trial next time, McLeod said it was premature to consider that.
“I wouldn’t say we lost hope in the jury system.”
Defence lawyers for the two men argued the prosecution failed to meet “its onus of proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“There is no evidence that J.W. conspired with anyone to murder Jordan,” said McLeod, saying J.W. was a friend of Jordan’s.
Riva said the prosecution’s case was undermined by a lack of physical evidence.
She said witnesses offered conflicting testimony based on “gossip and rumours, not actually truth.” There was another youth who could have been the shooter, Riva said.
Det. Sgt. Mike Barsky said he and his partner, now retired Det. Sgt. Chris Buck, “evaluated every piece of evidence in this case, we criticized every piece of evidence and we determined at the end of the day that these two had the exclusive opportunity to commit this act as alleged in court.”
“These are the people responsible for this,” Barsky said.
He said he understood that families for the accused and the victim are frustrated by the outcome.
“I think everybody wanted a definite answer in this case, whether it was an acquittal or a conviction. Now there will be another trial,” Barsky said.
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