Ugly Crew gang member found guilty in 2016 drive-by shooting in Peterborough
Dylan Hamre has been found guilty of several charges stemming from a 2016 drive-by shooting in Peterborough which left Damian Hall with a bullet in his hand.
“This case involves an extremely potent mixture of drug addiction, drug trafficking, the street drug subculture and firearms,” Justice Clyde Smith said Tuesday in a Lindsay courtroom.
He found Hamre guilty of aggravated assault, discharging a probated firearm with intent to wound, possession of a loaded firearm, unauthorized possession of a firearm, weapons trafficking and possession of a firearm while prohibited.
“As might be expected, it also involves some unsavoury witnesses, some of whom were clearly unsure about whether they were more afraid of their colleagues in the drug trafficking business than they were of the police who were investigating that business.”
According to an agreed statement of facts, Peterborough police were called to 266 McDonnel St. on Oct. 1, 2016, after two males drove through an alleyway and opened fire. Several bullets struck the rear wooden fence, while another bullet hit Hall in the right hand.
It was assistant Crown attorney Andrew Midwood’s theory that after the shooting, and before Hamre was arrested in a separate drug and guns investigation, Hamre asked Austin Murphy to store three guns for him, including the Ruger 10/22 Archangel semi-automatic gun that fired a bullet that hit Hall.
Those guns were located two months after the shooting, when police searched a Garside Drive home in connection to a drug investigation. It focused on the Ugly Crew, a group known to sell and carry guns in Peterborough.
Murphy, who testified in the trial, was charged and later sentenced to four months in jail after pleading guilty to possession of a prohibited or restricted firearm with ammunition, and two counts of unauthorized possession of a firearm.
The guns were later sent to the Centre of Forensic Sciences, where a firearms expert concluded casings found at the shooting scene were from the semi-automatic found at Garside Drive.
During his testimony in March, Murphy said while at the trap house sometime in September 2016, Hamre loaded a hockey bag containing the guns in the back of his SUV. Sometime before the shooting, Murphy said the accused asked for the semi-automatic back.
About a week-and-a-half after the shooting, Murphy said he got the gun back. Murphy testified he assumed what the gun was used for because he met with Hamre after the shooting when Hamre said, “Ya man we got him, pop, pop, pop.”
Murphy also told the court he and Hamre scoped out a place on McDonnel Street a couple of days before the shooting. Murphy believed they were looking at the place because the person that lived there robbed one of Hamre’s associates of cocaine.
During his opening statement, Midwood said Andrew Kennedy was the target and not Hall.
According to transcripts from the preliminary hearing, Kennedy testified that his cousin was selling cocaine for the accused, but he and his cousin decided to keep the cocaine and not pay Hamre.
At that hearing, Kennedy testified he had an encounter with Hamre on the day of the shooting, at the Chemong Road Walmart.
A video of the alleged encounter was played in court.
During the confrontation, Kennedy said Hamre told him to make sure his daughter wasn’t home because he was coming for what was his. Further, Kennedy testified that Hamre was in possession of two firearms, including one in a duffel bag, and another in his pocket.
“The evidence of Mr. Murphy regarding Mr. Hamre’s comments about having been ripped off by Mr. Kennedy and his stated desire to retaliate, coupled with Mr. Kennedy’s description of the encounter in the Walmart store, satisfy me beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Hamre had the motive to commit the offences charged,” said Smith, who also relied his decision on jailhouse conversation between Hamre and his girlfriend.
During the trial, court heard how nearly two years and passed without an arrest in the case, but that police were conducting an undercover investigation.
In September 2017, a judge approved a warrant to have Hamre’s jailhouse calls intercepted for 60 days. The warrant also allowed police to put wiretaps on Murphy and his mother’s phone as well as convicted drug dealer Matthew Kellough’s phone.
In conversations played for the court, Hamre’s girlfriend could be heard saying “You decided to go Al Capone.”
Hamre responded by saying “I told you it was a machine gun.”
Hamre, who is serving a fiveyear prison sentence for unrelated drug and gun offences, will return to court Dec. 8 when Smith will set a date for sentencing.