Brothers accused in murder of teen
Two 20-year-olds face charges in death of Riley Driver-Martin, a 14-year-old Mississauga boy
Two 20-year-old brothers are accused of murdering a Mississauga teenager whose body was found Friday.
Peel police confirmed Saturday that the 14-year-old found dead near Meadow Park, in the southern part of the city, was Riley Driver-Martin.
He is the youngest homicide victim in Peel Region this year.
On Saturday, police announced that 20-year-old Nicholas Mahabir had been charged with second-degree murder. In a later news release, police said Nicholas’s brother, Mark Mahabir, also 20, was wanted for second-degree murder. According to police, Mark turned himself in later Saturday evening and was charged. He will appear in court Sunday.
It is rare for someone as young as Driver-Martin to be a murder victim in the GTA. It’s even more unusual for an adult — though the Mahabirs are still young men — to be accused in the killing.
Nicholas Mahabir appeared briefly in handcuffs in a second-floor Brampton courtroom on Saturday afternoon.
A slight and short man with thick black hair that curled past his shoulders and a dark beard, Nicholas Mahabir appeared in court wearing a long-sleeved grey shirt.
His father, who avoided reporters, was seated in a backrow bench during the short proceeding in which Mahabir’s lawyer ask for the case be adjourned to a later date.
Mahabir will remain in jail until a bail hearing is held.
His lawyer, Marcus Bornfreund, said he doesn’t yet know what, if any, relationship his client is alleged to have had with Driver-Martin. He didn’t know if Nicholas Mahabir had a criminal record.
“He maintains his innocence at this time,” Bornfreund said. “Obviously the death of a 14year-old is tragic … But I have no information whatsoever as to their relationship, if any.”
Mahabir was arrested in Mississauga at what Bornfreund believed is his girlfriend’s house. He said it appeared police had taken some of his clothes to gather potential evidence.
For Mahabir’s family, the lawyer said the murder charge is “overwhelming.”
Driver-Martin’s death, the 25th homicide in Peel in 2018, comes toward the end of a violent year, particularly for gun crimes, in Toronto and the surrounding area. Friday’s killing puts Peel Region just two deaths shy of a record of 27 homicides set in 2008.
Little is known still about the circumstances that led to Driver-Martin’s death or how he was killed, though police have said there was evidence of trauma.
Police were called to a laneway in the residential area near Southdown Rd. and Truscott Dr., south of the Queen Elizabeth Way, just before 8 a.m. on Friday. The body was found by a passerby, police said earlier. The laneway is located near a home where Driver-Martin’s family lives and is also near Clarkson Secondary School, where friends say Driver-Martin was a student.
Police say Driver-Martin left his home late on Thursday evening, but it is not clear when or by whom he was last seen.
Detectives continued to say Saturday they believe the homicide is an “isolated incident.”
Driver-Martin’s grandmother, reached at home Saturday, said the family is grieving and declined to speak further.