Accused said he shot ‘kid’: friend

Says Noel Francis asked him to take possession of a gun, murder trial hears

KITCHENER — A former friend of Noel Francis told his murder trial on Tuesday that Francis admitted shooting a “kid” in Kitchener.

Francis, 30, of Toronto is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of Devane Campbell, 20, of Brantford. He was shot twice on the night of Nov. 30, 2012, at a housing complex at 199 Elm Ridge Dr. in Kitchener.

Stevie Stephens, 35, a Toronto singer/ songwriter and convicted cocaine trafficker, said Francis told him he pulled out a gun during a robbery in Kitchener and fired.

“He wasn’t sure if the kid passed away,” Stephens told Crown prosecutor Nicole Redgate, adding Francis said he later learned he had died.

Stephens was asked how Francis appeared. “He was shaking.”

Stephens said the conversation happened days after the homicide.

The Crown says three men, armed and masked, burst into the townhouse looking to rob it. Two men ran upstairs as Campbell leapt from a second-floor balcony into the snowy backyard before busting back inside through the front door to confront the intruders.

Stephens said when Francis told him he had shot someone, he noticed an injury on Francis’s hand.

“A chunk of his skin was missing. He was paranoid about DNA.”

Francis later “shampooed” his car, a black Mercedes, and got rid of it, Stephens said.

He said Francis told him police later found the car, seized it and “were investigating him,” Stephens said.

The trial has heard a black Mercedes was seen near the townhouse on the night of the homicide.

Stephens testified that hours after the homicide, Francis knocked on his door, gave him a bag and told him to hold onto it for a few days. Stephens said he didn’t look in the bag right away. When he did look, he saw a black gun, he said.

“I was shocked. I don’t usually have guns in my house.”

Stephens said he gave the gun to an acquaintance with “an interest in firearms.” He said it wasn’t until later that he realized the gun may have been used in a homicide.

Stephens was arrested in April 2015 for trafficking the firearm.

The arrest happened on the same day his band BAE, which included musician Karl Wolf and singer/songwriter Brenda Mullen, signed a worldwide deal with Armada Music. The music is classified as deep house/soul. Stephens’ stage name is Show Stephens.

Cross-examined by defence lawyer Chris Murphy, Stephens agreed that while his band members were on the red carpet, he was in handcuffs.

Murphy asked him if he felt burned by his friend. “Yes,” he replied. Murphy also asked Stephens about his conviction on cocaine trafficking earlier this year. Stephens said a dealer put almost 1.5 kilograms of cocaine worth $160,000 under his bed.

Stephens said he was at a casino when the drugs were dropped off. But Murphy showed him a transcript from the preliminary hearing where Stephens said: “He gave me the bag. He said, ‘Hold onto this for me.’”

Murphy noted that at the preliminary hearing, Stephens claimed Francis made a similar comment when he allegedly gave him the bag with the gun. “Yeah,” Stephens said at the hearing. Cross-examination of Stephens will continue at a later date. The trial continues on Wednesday.