‘Jail beef’ murder case gets underway

James Bajkor wasn’t the target, but a bullet fired outside his Hamilton home while he worked in the backyard six years ago didn’t discriminate.

With a bullet lodged in his chest, Bajkor died at Hamilton General the evening of May 21, 2012, a jury heard Monday.

Justin Beals, who was also shot, survived after surgery, Crown attorney Jill MacKenzie said in her opening statement at the first-degree murder trial.

“Five shots. Shaquille Collins fired five bullets from a Colt .45 handgun down the narrow walkway of 16 Milton Ave., trying to kill Justin Beals.”

Collins “planned, deliberated and fired the handgun” to kill Beals, but wound up killing Bajkor, which “as a consequence is first-degree murder.”

The 25-year-old accused — who is also charged with attempted murder for allegedly firing upon Beals — has pleaded not guilty.

MacKenzie told the jury Collins and Beals were inmates at the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre in October 2011, when Beals and others were said to have assaulted Collins.

On May 21, 2012, the two men ran into each other outside a Sanford Avenue North apartment building, where Collins started a fight over the “jail beef,” MacKenzie said.

Amber Thorogood, who was Beals’ girlfriend at the time, said from the witness stand Monday that Collins was irate and spoke of killing him.

After a scuffle, the couple ran toward 16 Milton Ave., off Barton Street East, where her cousin, Brandon Hackett, was renting from Bajkor, the homeowner.

Thorogood said she told Hackett to grab a weapon to help Beals ward off Collins, who was in a “cat-and-mouse” pursuit with her boyfriend.

Bajkor, working on the roof of a backyard shed, heard the commotion and joked that she was always getting into trouble, said Thorogood, 29.

Collins left, but returned a few minutes later in a taxi with two others. Collins grabbed what looked like a gun from one of the two and made a cocking motion, recalled Thorogood. He crouched down and ran toward them.

She ran inside. Hiding behind a fridge in the kitchen, she heard gunshots. Then, Hackett and Beals, who had bullet wounds, entered the home, she said.

“It looked like a faucet was just running,” Thorogood said of Beals’ injuries.

Defence lawyer Alison Craig argued during cross-examination that Thorogood’s story wasn’t consistent with previous versions told in court and to police.

Craig suggested Thorogood didn’t hear her client issue a death threat, and pointed out she’d previously described Collins initially retreating in a cab, not on foot.

Moreover, Thorogood had previously said Beals was hit by bullets inside the home, but not outside, as she said on the stand Monday.

Thorogood wouldn’t waver from her latest testimony: She was in a fragile state when she talked to police shortly after the shooting and said she couldn’t recall some details Monday.

The trial resumes Tuesday.