Murder charges bring some relief to mourners
Two men arrested, another suspect sought in beating death of man visiting from Baltimore
As the family of Julian Jones awaits the return of his remains to Baltimore, the news that police have charged two men with second-degree murder has brought them some comfort.
Jones, 26, who was visiting Toronto with friends to attend a bachelor party, was beaten to death outside a College St. bar in an unprovoked attack early Saturday morning, police have said.
Prayers, hope and hard work have been put into this, Jones’s father Tobias in a phone interview Thursday.
“I have a great deal of confidence in the Toronto police. I’m very comfortable with their reports. They keep me updated (on the investigation).”
Kamari Folkes, 24, and Kenneth Omorogbe, 25, were arrested early Wednesday, without incident, and briefly appeared in an Old City Hall courtroom Thursday morning.
Homicide investigators are still looking for a third man described as slim, white and in his late 20s, said Det. Sgt. Gary Giroux at a news conference.
Police obtained surveillance video of the suspects but Giroux said cellphone footage taken by a friend of Jones from Maryland is the “key evidence” in a case where establishing identity is expected to be a central issue. He said police are not releasing photographs of the three men because they do not want to interfere with photo lineups with potential witnesses. Giroux added that he may send investigators to Baltimore so Jones’s friends can look at some security footage.
At about 2:25 a.m. on Nov. 5, Jones and his friends left the Blnd Tger bar and were “set upon by a group of males who wanted to fight,” said Insp. Bryan Bott.
“Mr. Jones and his friends are not the aggressors,” Giroux said Thursday.
“I have a great deal of confidence in the Toronto police.” TOBIAS JONES FATHER OF STREET ATTACK VICTIM JULIAN JONES
“The allegations are kicking and stomping of a semi-conscious Julian Jones while he was lying on the ground.” Jones died en route to hospital. Giroux told the news conference that both Folkes and Omorogbe have “past criminal baggage.”
Court records from the Scarborough courthouse show Folkes was convicted of an assault and sentenced to a year of probation in May 2012. Omorogbe was charged with obstructing a peace officer in April 2014 and sentenced to one day in jail. He also had an assault causing bodily harm charge from 2015 resolved with a peace bond in February 2016.
A woman who identified herself as Omorogbe’s girlfriend was picking up some things from his apartment on Thursday afternoon and spoke briefly to a reporter.
“He’s not a bad person, you know,” she said. “He has a child, a kitty. He works every single day.”
On a blog created in 2013 for a computer course, Folkes wrote that he planned to become a carpenter and has experience working in the con- struction industry.
The men appeared in court separately and said little except to acknowledge a no-contact order with witnesses. They will remain in custody, with a next appearance by video on Nov. 22.
Meanwhile, Jones’s friends and family — including his younger siblings and his fiancée — continue to mourn the sudden loss of a kind, compassionate man with a bright future ahead of him.
“My brother, my best friend, my idol wanted to make a difference in the world by making it a better place for us all. He wanted to help everyone, save the environment and spread peace. He possessed a heart of gold, a heart that could calm any angry person and lift up anyone who was ever sad,” his brother Justin wrote in a post on GoFundMe in Jones’s memory.
“(His) dreams of graduating and being married were all silenced within an irreversible moment of pure hate and violence.”
Tobias Jones said the process to return his son’s body home is a complicated one but he is hoping that it will happen by early next week.