Cellphone death trial hears details of shooting
WITNESS TESTIFIES
• Cornell Donkers had already climbed out of the dumpster at the back of the Shoppers Drug Mart when he heard the gunshots.
Donkers and a female friend were out during the early morning hours of June 14, 2015, to dumpster dive — rummage the large garbage bins behind various businesses — hoping to find treasures.
I nstead, t he London man — who calls himself “residentially challenged” — would be a witness to a homicide that drew nationwide attention.
Donkers was testifying Thursday at the Superior Court jury trial of Mohamed Sail, 26, of Calgary, who has pleaded not guilty to seconddegree murder in the death of Jeremy Cook, 18, of Brampton. Cook was found shot to death behind the Shoppers Drug Mart on London’s Highbury Avenue after he and his sister had traced his lost cellphone to a car at a McDonald’s.
The driver was Muhab Sultan, 23, who died weeks later in Ottawa’s Rideau River while fleeing police.
Sail was the passenger. The jury has heard how Cook and his older sister, Kayla, had tracked the phone through the Find My iPhone app and confronted the pair as they were leaving the parking lot.
After toying with them, the pair took off, throwing Cook’s sister to the ground. Jeremy grabbed on to the driver’s side of the car and held on until they reached the rear of the drugstore.
Donkers and his friend had gone out early that morning with certain dumpsters in mind. The Shoppers dumpster became a target when Donkers’ friend said she wanted some makeup.
When the first gunshot rang out, Donkers said he and his friend were face to face, looking “in each other’s eyes … Her eyes widened.”
The second shot was about three seconds later. Donkers — who told the jury he was nearsighted — was able to lean back and see the “shapes and colours” of tail lights and a person crouching down beside the driver’s side corner.
The man, he said, had a dark complexion, a goatee and facial hair, and was wearing a white shirt.
Donkers said it was “absolutely silent” after the car left. “I leave my friend and come around the corner to see if this is real,” he said.
He saw Cook’s body on the ground, and touched his wrist. “It felt different. I didn’t feel a pulse.”
The jury also heard from a second witness who heard the shots, Warren Carey, and from London police Const. David Younan, the first officer on the scene. He began CPR, but there was no pulse.
The trial continues Friday.