Dispute over party music led to shooting, trial hears
Two men are facing murder charge in connection to the 2010 death at home on Dundurn Street South
Brandon Musgrave, 18, was trying to calm a dispute over music at a student party when he was shot and killed, a trial jury has heard.
“He was a peacemaker,” testified Wesley Adi before he broke into tears.
Adi was the first witness in a new trial Monday for two Hamilton men accused of shooting Musgrave and two other students who survived.
Tyrone Anthony Chambers, 31, and Joshua David Warner, 29, are charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault.
The victims were guests at a March 12, 2010, spring break party given by Columbia International College students living at 53 Dundurn St. S.
International students come to Hamilton’s Columbia College to improve their English in hopes of attending university in Canada, said assistant Crown attorney Gordon Akilie in his opening address to the jury at the start of the trial.
The party, which was advertised on Facebook, was attended by Columbia students and friends, including Musgrave, a Hamilton resident, Akilie said.
Chambers and Warner were among those who were not invited, he added.
The shootings happened after Chambers “decided that he didn’t like the music being played and got into a dispute,” Akilie said. “Both he and Mr. Warner pulled out firearms. A number of shots were fired.”
After Chambers and Warner fled, “the outcome became clear. Kauner Chinambu suffered a gunshot wound to the wrist and chest, while Ted Tsibu-Darkoh had been shot in the shoulder … Tragically, Brandon Musgrave died of a gunshot wound to the head.”
Adi testified after Akilie’s opening statement that it was his rap music — playing from an iPod plugged into a speaker — that Chambers did not like and called gay. “He tried to forcibly pull out the jack but I held onto it.”
Chambers then paced back and forth, saying “I can end this f--ing party right now” before both he and Warner signalled to Adi to go outside with them to settle the dispute, Adi said.
Adi, an 18-year-old student from Nigeria at the time, testified he took a few steps and paused — and at that point, Brandon walked up to him and whispered in his ear “This isn’t worth it.”
“I had never seen Mr. Brandon Musgrave in my life … and here comes this stranger saying to me this isn’t worth it, as if he knew what would happen to me if I went outside,” Adi said amid tears.
Almost immediately, “guns came out,” Adi said, testifying he saw Chambers and Warner reach into their pockets and pull out weapons concealed with handkerchiefs.
Chambers pointed his gun at a friend of Adi’s who told him “Shoot me if you want, I’m not scared of you,” said Adi.
“Seconds later, I hear gunshots … everything happened so fast.”
Adi heard six shots while he ducked — and after five to six seconds of gunfire — which he described as being “like rapid fireworks” Chambers and Warner ran out of the house, he said.
“That’s when I saw Brandon Musgrave …(with) a gunshot hole on the right side of his head.”
Chambers’ lawyer Christopher Hicks challenged Adi’s recollections and suggested Chambers had asked him politely to change the music — and that Adi was the one who was angry, upset, “pumped” and disrespectful by not answering Chambers. But Adi disagreed.
Hicks also suggested that Adi never saw a gun, to which Adi said “Yes, I never saw a gun because it was concealed. I just witnessed the shots being fired. This thing happened very fast.”
Justice Toni Skarica — in his instructions at the trial’s start — let the jury know “this trial has been tried before” but “an appellant court determined the judge in that trial made a fundamental error and ordered a new trial.
“You are to ignore completely the results of the previous trial,” he said.