Defence claims wrong men charged
With no direct evidence linking two suspects to a Windsor nightclub shooting and witness testimony that’s not believable, two Brampton men should be found innocent, the defence argued Friday on the final day of their trial.
Kevin Mantley Nyadu, 22, is charged with attempted murder and five firearm offences in the Oct. 5, 2014, shooting of Devonte Pierce at the Boom Boom Room on Ouellette Avenue. Shadrack Kwame Amankwa, 27, is charged with being an accessory to attempted murder, as well as five firearm offences.
“Somebody had to be there to shoot Mr. Pierce — it wasn’t Mr. Nyadu,” his lawyer Patricia Brown said during the defence’s summation before Ontario Superior Court Justice J. Paul Howard. As for Amankwa, “there is no evidence he was in the club that evening,” his lawyer Julie Santarossa said.
After assistant Crown attorney Tim Kavanagh spent Thursday summing up 12 days of trial testimony and laying out “very powerful, compelling evidence” against the two men, it was the turn of the defence on Friday to make the case for acquittals.
With no direct evidence, including any witnesses to the actual shooting or DNA or fingerprints of either men found on the recovered gun used in the crime, both defence lawyers tore into the testimony of the Crown’s trial witnesses to raise reasonable doubt with the judge.
Santarossa pointed out that mistakes by eyewitnesses “are responsible for more miscarriages of justice than any other factor.”
The Boom Boom Room employee who told police she saw a gun in Nyadu’s hand while inside the nightclub also testified she was tired and was finishing a 16-hour workday and that she “wasn’t sure what she saw” in the dark indoor environment, said Santarossa.
Figures shown on surveillance cameras running away from the scene and identified by the prosecution as the two accused could just as well have been two innocent men fleeing a dangerous scene where a weapon had been discharged, the defence argued. Brown said up to 10 people were observed running from the nightclub after the shooting.
Panic, embarrassment and fear of false accusation are all “alternative explanations” for why someone would be racing away from the scene of a crime, said Santarossa.
Brown cited a bouncer’s account of having his hands on Nyadu’s shoulders and standing between the accused and Pierce, when the gunshot rang out about 10 feet away, with Pierce being shot in the back.
“It’s impossible for Mr. Nyadu to have been the shooter ... each and every witness made it impossible for Mr. Nyadu to be the shooter,” said Santarossa, who based part of her client’s defence on Nyadu being absolved. Both defence lawyers saved their harshest words for Boom Boom Room general manager Renaldo Agostino, urging the judge to give “zero weight” to his testimony and evidence.