Affidavit discrepancies led to hit-run charges
The case of a fashion entrepreneur charged in connection to a fatal hit and run in a Cabbagetown laneway last September was in court for the first time Thursday.
Michelle Shemilt, 34, was charged in January after investigators became aware of “significant discrepancies” in statements she made to police about a man lying on the ground on Nuthatch Lane, near Carlton and Parliament Sts., according to a sworn Toronto police affidavit.
The affidavit was filed by police court in order to obtain a warrant to search. It contains unproven allegations from the police investigation to that point.
“I was just walking home and I saw someone lying in the middle of the lane and I don’t know if they need help or not ...” Shemilt told a 911 operator on Sept. 21, 2018, the affidavit says. She was transferred to EMS and repeated what she had seen “while ... walking home.”
About an hour later, the 911 dispatcher called Shemilt and asked if she had made the earlier call. “The dispatcher asked her if she was driving or stopped and spoke to the male. She replied ‘... Oh I was just driving home and I saw him from the other side of the lane and I called the police and they said an ambulance was on the way.’ ”
The affidavit says Shemilt provided contradictory information to police that included the times and direction that she was travelling on Nuthatch and whether she was “driving home from work or out for a walk.”
Shemilt’s lawyer, Daniel Brown, called it a “tragic situation.”
“Ms. Shemilt will vigorously defend her innocence and we ask that people not rush to judgment without hearing all of the evidence.”
She is charged with failing to stop at the scene of an accident that involved death and causing death by criminal negligence.
Toronto paramedics arrived on scene and believed Watts, 58, had been assaulted. He was taken to St. Michael’s Hospital where he died from what was determined to be multiple blunt force injuries consistent with being in a collision with a motor vehicle. Watts had no fixed address.
Shemilt did not appear in court Thursday. She is the founder of NUMI, a brand of organic women’s anti-sweat undershirts. In 2017, she appeared on the television show Dragon’s Den seeking some investment money. According to an online biography, Shemilt has worked as a model and was a former Bay Street equity trader.
Her case returns to court March 7.