A Video Tribute To Jane Creba
Showing posts with label Jane Creba. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jane Creba. Show all posts
Monday, December 19, 2011
Jane Creba
The Boxing Day shooting: The story so far
Updated: Tue Dec. 22 2009
The latest development in the Boxing Day 2005 shooting death of Jane Creba is the guilty plea of Jeremiah Valentine. He had been scheduled to go on trial in January on a charge of second-degree murder.
On Dec. 22, 2009, Justice John McMahon sentenced Valentine to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 12 years.
The first major legal proceeding was the trial and subsequent sentencing of J.S.R. -- who can be named as Jorrell Simpson-Rowe following an April 24, 2009 court ruling. That proceeding began 15 months earlier.
The events leading up to these proceedings began on Boxing Day 2005.
Creba was out shopping with her sister, when she was hit by a bullet fired during a dispute between two groups of thugs.
The slaying rocked a city already traumatized by number of notorious shootings in what became known as the Year of the Gun.
Four more people face either trial or a verdict in connection with the brief gunfight outside a Foot Locker south of Elm Street that also left six people wounded.
J.S.R.'s trial began on Sept. 8, 2008, but the jury didn't hear the Crown's opening address until Oct. 16. He pleaded not guilty to:
- One count of second-degree murder
- Six counts of attempted murder
- Five weapons charges
On Dec. 7, 2008, the fourth day of deliberations, the jury found J.S.R. guilty of second-degree murder, two counts of aggravated assault and the weapons charges.
J.S.R. originally couldn't be fully named because he was only 17 at the time of the shootings, making him a young offender and subject to the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The 21-year-old had been in custody since his arrest.
On April 24, 2009, Justice Ian Nordheimer sentenced Simpson-Rowe to life in prison without possibility of parole for seven years. J.S.R. will have to serve an additional three years and eight months before he can apply for parole.
J.S.R. was not accused of firing the shot that killed Creba, but under recent advances in Canadian criminal law, he could be found guilty of murder if the Crown proved to the jury's satisfaction that he participated in a gunfight and another person returned fire that struck and killed a bystander.
A key question at trial was whether the Crown could prove J.S.R. fired a handgun outside the Foot Locker store. Police found a 9mm Ruger semi-automatic pistol on J.S.R. when they arrested him at the Castle Frank subway station. That firearm was forensically linked to the shooting scene.
Near the end of the Crown's portion of the trial, the Crown and defence agreed that another man also faces charges had been carrying the pistol at the Eaton Centre and while at the Foot Locker (see 'what happened?' for the sequence of events). Furthermore, they agree that accused still held the gun when the shooting started.
Justice Ian Nordheimer of Ontario Superior Court presided over the trial, which was heard by a jury of six men and six women.
The Crown prosecutor was Kerry Hughes. The defence lawyers were Mara Greene and Gary Grill.
What happened?
The genesis of the shooting began in the Eaton Centre mall where a group of young men had been behaving badly.
The North York group left the mall and moved north on the west side of Yonge Street to a Foot Locker store just south of a Pizza Pizza outlet at the intersection with Elm Street.
Valentine and his friend Milan Mijatovic were at the Foot Locker store to buy shoes for their children. Valentine was packing a .357 Magnum revolver, although it was never recovered after the gunfight.
He noticed someone else who appeared to be carrying a firearm. Defence lawyer Edward Sapiano claimed in court on Dec. 22 that the men in the Foot Locker attempted to rob his client of a gold chain.
Around 5:15 p.m., the two groups confronted each other on the sidewalk. They argued. Gunfire broke out.
Witnesses say one man, slightly to the south of the Foot Locker, first fired a shot into the air. Then they saw muzzle flashes and heard shots from the opposing group.
Const. Brian Callanan, a police officer who was working as a paid-duty officer at the now-defunct Sam The Record Man immediately across the street, has testified that he heard two volleys of shots mere seconds apart.
The day would be the culmination of the Year of the Gun -- 52 gun deaths were recorded in Toronto in 2005.
The casualties
Like thousands of Torontonians, Jane Creba, 15, had been out shopping for Boxing Day bargains. She went with her sister Alison. They were on the east side of Yonge Street when Jane crossed the street to see if she could use the bathroom in the Pizza Pizza.
Jane got caught in the crossfire. Court has heard she may have tried to duck, but a bullet entered her back, severed her aorta and exited the base of her throat. "I didn't think there was anything I could do for her," Callanan testified.
The trial would later hear that Creba didn't die immediately. One witness testified he saw her crawling a few steps, blood covering her face, before she collapsed. She would become Toronto's 78th homicide victim of 2005.
Const. Angela Kahnt testified that while some onlookers tried to save Creba as she lay dying.
The incident left six other people wounded. Five of those required hospital care, and two were seriously wounded. A sixth person, an off-duty police officer, suffered minor wounds that didn't require hospital care.
The hunt for suspects
There was bedlam at the shooting scene, with massive crowds scattering in panic. But police did manage to catch an early break.
Nasser Kaivan-Mehr told court on Oct. 28 2008 that J.S.R. entered his cab, which was parked near the bus terminal west of Bay Street a few blocks from the scene. The youth seemed excited and out of breath.
They picked up a second man and asked to go to the nearest subway station, which happened to be St. Patrick's at Dundas Street West and University Avenue. The cabbie overheard a cellphone conversation where he heard them speaking on a cellphone with a third man, arranging a meeting at Castle Frank station.
Kaivan-Mehr went back to the bus terminal and told police.
When they arrested the two about 40 minutes after the shooting, police found J.S.R. holding a handgun.
Almost six months would pass before police arrested anyone else in connection with the shootout. In the meantime, police offered a $50,000 reward and protection to anyone who stepped forward.
A team of up to 20 investigators worked on the case, codenamed "Project Green Apple" because Creba liked that particular fruit.
In a series of pre-dawn raids conducted on June 13, 2006, police picked up eight people in connection with the Creba case, as part of a wider group of 25 arrested.
Two of those arrested in that sweep were among the six who suffered gunshot wounds that Dec. 26, 2005 night.
Who has been charged
Here are the others, besides Simpson-Rowe and Valentine, and their charges (all are in custody except one). Judge Timothy Lipson committed seven of them to stand trial in a ruling issued March 14, 2008 following a 10-month preliminary hearing:
- Defendant 1 - second-degree murder, six counts attempted murder; jury selection set for Jan. 25, 2010
- Defendant 2 - second-degree murder, six counts attempted murder; jury selection set for Jan. 25, 2010
- Andrew Smith - manslaughter (charge later dismissed)
- Vincent Davis - manslaughter (charge later dismissed)
- Andre Thompson - manslaughter, weapons offences (charges later dropped)
- Shaun Thompson - manslaughter (free on bail) (charge later dismissed)
- G.C. (young offender, now an adult) - manslaughter; awaiting verdict
Difference between murder and manslaughter
This area of law is complex. The 2008 version of Martin's Criminal Code takes more than 20 pages to cover the concepts of homicide, murder and manslaughter.
Here are the simplified versions, but check a legal text if you want the absolute letter of the law.
Murder is when you:
- Unlawfully kill someone and intended to do so
- Meant to cause bodily harm and didn't care whether death resulted or not (accidents and mistakes aren't excuses)
- You killed someone while doing something unlawful and caused a person's death, even if you didn't mean to do so
Intoxication can be a reason for finding someone guilty of manslaughter instead of murder, as can be provocation. The law sees those two factors as reducing someone's ability to form the intent necessary to commit murder.
In Lipson's ruling, he reduced the charges against Barnett and Woodcock to manslaughter from second-degree murder. However, a higher court restored murder charges against the two in a mid-September ruling.
J.S.R. saw his second-degree murder charge reduced to manslaughter by Nordheimer, who was then overruled by the Ontario Court of Appeal.
Jane Creba
‘Severe sentence’ urged in Creba death
Another notorious Toronto gun crime was invoked on Wednesday during the sentencing hearing for two men convicted of manslaughter in the death of Jane Creba.Crown attorney Maurice Gillezeau pointed to the 15-year sentence imposed for manslaughter against one of the men convicted in the 1994 Just Desserts shooting and suggested a similar penalty for Louis Raphael Woodcock and Tyshaun Barnett.
“I am asking you to hand down a severe sentence,” the Crown said to Ontario Superior Court Justice Gladys Pardu. “I am asking for a sentence of at least 15 years.”
Ms. Creba was fatally wounded on Boxing Day 2005 as she crossed Yonge Street just north of the Eaton Centre, while out shopping with her sister. The 15-year-old high school student was caught in the crossfire of a gun battle between two rival groups outside of a Foot Locker store.
Woodcock, 23, and Barnett, 23, were originally charged with second-degree murder and accused of firing guns in the shootout. They were convicted by a jury this spring of manslaughter and four counts of aggravated assault, related to others wounded in the gun battle.
Jeremiah Valentine, who pleaded guilty last December to second-degree murder and received a life sentence with no parole for at least 12 years, used a .357 Magnum to fire the shot that “almost certainly” was the source of the bullet that killed Ms. Creba, the court heard.
While Barnett and Woodcock were not accused of firing a shot that killed anyone, the Crown said the two men legally caused the death of Ms. Creba. “This was a mutual gunfight,” said Mr. Gillezeau.
In the Just Desserts case, another innocent young woman lost her life. Georgina “Vivi” Leimonis, a patron at the midtown restaurant, was fatally shot by Lawrence Brown during a botched robbery. Brown is serving a life sentence for murder. Gary Francis, an accomplice in the robbery, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for manslaughter in 1999 by Justice Brian Trafford.
“Francis did not fire the gun and he got 15 years,” noted Mr. Gillezeau.
Lawyers representing Woodcock and Barnett asked for a range of between six to 10 years in prison. They also argued for at least two-for-one credit for the four years of pre-trial custody. Both men spent several months of their time in jail “triple bunked” in 54-square-foot cells at the Toronto Don Jail, the court heard.
Recent changes to the Criminal Code that would normally limit pre-trial credit to a one-to-one ratio, do not apply to people charged before the law took effect.
Christopher Hicks, who represents Barnett, urged Judge Pardu to impose a sentence based on the law and not the notoriety of the case. “There are no nice facts to manslaughter,” he said.
Woodcock and Barnett both apologized to the court for their actions and the death of Ms. Creba. “I hope that Ms. Creba and her family and everyone affected by my acts will one day find it in their hearts to forgive me,” said Woodcock, wearing a blue sweater and dress pants.
Judge Pardu indicated that she will impose sentence on Aug. 26.
Jane Creba
TORONTO — One of the men found guilty in the Boxing Day shooting death of Toronto teenager Jane Creba will appeal his second-degree murder conviction Tuesday.
Jorrell Simpson-Rowe is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for seven years after he was sentenced as an adult for the Dec. 26, 2005, shooting.
Creba, 15, was shopping with her mother and sister on Toronto’s busy Yonge Street when she was killed by a stray bullet shot during a gang dispute.
Simpson-Rowe, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, is appealing his conviction on three grounds.
- He maintains the verdict was unreasonable, that he was “forced” into a jury trial when he wanted to be tried by a judge alone, and that the description of the shooters did not conclusively match him.
- Another man, Jeremiah Valentine, also pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the shooting. Experts testified that the bullet which killed Creba most likely came from Valentine’s gun.
- Two others — Tyshaun Barnett and Louis Woodcock — were found guilty of manslaughter and handed 12-year sentences. An unidentified youth was found not guilty of manslaughter.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Jane Creba
The Boxing Day shooting was a Canadian gang-related shooting which occurred on December 26, 2005 on Toronto's Yonge Street, resulting in the death of 15-year-old student Jane Creba. Six other bystanders—four men and two women, were wounded. The incident took place on one of Toronto's most crowded streets on the very busy shopping day, just a few blocks north of the Toronto Eaton Centre. The story generated national news coverage in Canada and influenced the then-underway 2006 federal election campaign on the issues of gun crime and street violence.
Jane Creba (May 13, 1990 – December 26, 2005), a Grade 10 student at Riverdale Collegiate Institute, was killed in the incident. While shopping with her sister, she was exiting Pizza Pizza on the west side of the street, when the gunfight erupted. One bullet passed through her upper torso, lodging in her clothing; it was later recovered in hospital. She was rushed to St. Michael's Hospital and died during emergency surgery.
Police arrested two men on several gun charges at Castle Frank subway station within an hour after the shooting: Andrew Thompson, 20, who was on probation at the time and Jorrell Simpson-Rowe, 17. Thompson had been released just before Christmas from Maplehurst prison near Milton, Ontario, where he had served 30 days for his role in a convenience-store robbery. He declined a bail hearing for his current charges. Police believe as many as 10 to 15 people were involved in the shooting and that more than one gun was fired.
Twenty Toronto Police detectives were assigned to "Project Green Apple" (named after her favourite food) to work on the case. On June 13, 2006, Toronto Police conducted multiple raids at 14 locations throughout Toronto in the early morning, arresting six men and two teenagers. Charges laid against them included manslaughter, second-degree murder, and attempted murder relating to the six other by-standers. All arrested are members of two different street gangs.
In October 2007 a young man who was rounded up in the initial arrests, Eric Boateng, was shot dead in a seemingly unconnected incident. Boateng was not charged with the shooting, but was later charged with cocaine trafficking.
As of December 2007, ten people have been charged with murder or manslaughter in the case, three of whom are youths. Those charged with second-degree murder include Tyshaun Barnett and Louis Woodcock, both 19, Jeremiah Valentine, 24, and Jorrell Simpson-Rowe, who was 17 at the time of the shootings. One of the teenagers who was arrested in June and charged with manslaughter was exonerated on October 25, 2007 after the preliminary hearing. The teenager charged with murder was committed to trial.
On December 7, 2008, Jorrell Simpson-Rowe, previously known as JSR due to the Youth Criminal Justice Act's non-disclosure of identities of minors, was convicted by a jury of murder in the second degree. In April 2009, he was sentenced as an adult to life in prison with no chance of parole for seven years.
In March 2009, British resident Dorian Wallace was arrested in London. Canadian authorities have requested his extradition to Canada so that he may be charged with manslaughter for Creba's death.
In November 2009, manslaughter charges against four individuals involved in the incident were dropped because the prosecutors "felt there were no reasonable prospects for conviction". The four were alleged by prosecutors to have had a "common unlawful purpose" in the incident, but did not fire a weapon.
In December 2009, one decliner, 27-year-old Jeremiah Valentine pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Creba's death and was given a life sentence with no chance of parole for 12 years. And in April 2010, a jury found Louis Woodcock, 23, and Tyshaun Barnett, 22, guilty of manslaughter in the 15-year-old's death, but not guilty of the more serious offense of second-degree murder. They were also found guilty of four counts each of aggravated assault, relating to other people who were wounded by stray bullets that day. The sentencing is set for April 22.
The Boxing Day Shooting was the subject of intense media coverage, particularly after a year in which the city of Toronto recorded 80 homicides and a city record 52 shooting deaths. Only one month earlier on November 18, 2005, Amon Beckles was killed outside the sanctuary of a church while attending the funeral of his friend, Jamal Hemmings, whose shooting death he may have witnessed a week earlier, on Eglinton Avenue between Oakwood and Marlee Avenues in the Eglinton West neighbourhood in the former city of York.
Some saw Creba's death as a sign of the beginnings of a big-city crime problem in Toronto. The incident was yet another example that led to 2005 being labeled by both the media and police as the year of the gun. Detective Sergeant Savas Kyriacou of the Toronto Police Service spoke for these people in saying, "Toronto has finally lost its innocence. I think we're going to feel this day for a long time to come." At the same time, Toronto continues to have a lower violent crime rate than similarly-sized American cities, and on a per capita basis, it is on par with other Canadian cities.
Creba's death has also caused much controversy over the causes of gun crime and the ways to handle the problem, and over race.[citation needed] Also controversial is resurgence of the Guardian Angels in Toronto; they arrived in mid-January to visit the city. Toronto street patrols began in July; however, the chapter had run into financial difficulties by September 2006.
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