Trial for double murder begins
A Toronto jury has begun hearing evidence in a case of two men accused of spraying Spadina Ave. with gunfire after a stranger asked for directions to an after-hours party in Kensington Market.
Jahmal Richardson and Kyle Sparks MacKinnon are accused of killing two men, almost taking the life of another, and wounding two others. They have pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, attempted murder with a firearm and two aggravated assaults.
Quinn Taylor and David Eminess died in the shooting, while their friend Stewart Douglas was shot at close range.
In the downtown courthouse not far from the carnage, prosecutors Kerry Hughes and Susan Adams opened their case Wednesday telling a Superior Court jury what evidence they are expected to hear, and also what they won’t.
While several witnesses who watched and heard events unfold early Jan. 31, 2016, will testify, none will be able to point to the accused and identify either as the person they recognize as one of the shooters, Hughes told jurors during her opening remarks.
The Crown’s case will be based on different pieces of circumstantial evidence that, taken together, will be “just as convincing as direct evidence,” and will include video footage from storefronts, a dying victim’s ID, photos of a gun found at the scene and the testimony of a survivor who was shot in the head, Hughes said.
Hughes outlined the Crown’s theory: Stewart Douglas and his friends Quinn Taylor and David Eminess were searching for an after-hours party in Kensing- ton Market when, Hughes said, Douglas asked for directions from a group of men standing outside the New Ho King restaurant on the west side of Spadina, several blocks south of College St.
“Douglas asked once, then stepped away to light a cigarette. He then went back and approached a man wearing a sleeveless black vest with fur around the armholes,” Hughes said. “When he asked that man where the after-hours party was, instead of an answer to his question he was shot in the head.”
The trial resumes Thursday.