Three guilty in Weston murder
Jury believed Crown witness’s account of 2016 shooting inside a Pizza Pizza store
A Toronto jury has found three men guilty of first-degree murder in the 2016 shooting death of 17-year-old Jarryl Hagley inside a Weston Rd. Pizza Pizza, believing the Crown’s key witness was telling the truth when he testified against the three accused.
Mohamed Ali-Nur, 21, and 25-year-old twin brothers Lenneil and Shakiyl Shaw were convicted Thursday morning after a two-month trial. The jury deliberated for a little more than a day.
The Crown alleged Lenneil Shaw and Ali-Nur opened fire on Hagley inside the Pizza Pizza in the early hours of Oct. 16, 2016, while Shakiyl Shaw drove the getaway car.
The verdict appeared to stun the young men and their defence lawyers.
Lenneil Shaw removed his glasses and put his face in his hands. His brother tried to make eye contact with his mother, Sharon Shaw, who sat bent over and sobbing in the courtroom. Ali-Nur remained composed after his lawyer, Margaret Bojanowska, briefly grasped his arm with her hand.
The trio will be sentenced June 4. First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.
Delma Hagley, the victim’s mother, said she felt a blend of emotions.
“It’s not something to rejoice over, but it somewhat gave me that peace of mind that to know justice was given to the right people,” she told reporters outside the downtown courthouse.
She thanked Toronto police investigators, including homicide Det. Jason Shankaran, and prosecutors David Tice and Michael Coristine. She said she was particularly grateful that the Crown’s key witness, Winston Poyser, 26, “put his life on the risk for my son to bring justice.”
Defence lawyers Boris Bytensky and Dirk Derstine, who represented the twins, declined to comment except to confirm they will be appealing.
Bojanowska said she is “certain” of the young men’s innocence and that there was “no credible evidence” against them. Poyser, she maintained, “lied repeatedly,” had a “very unreliable memory,” and was also high and drunk that evening.
During her closing address, Bojanowska addressed the question she figured jurors would wonder about: why would Poyser implicate the twins, who were his friends, and her client, a virtual stranger. There was no evidence of animosity between Poyser and the defendants. “He was caught between a rock and a hard place,” she said of Poyser on Thursday.
She repeated the theory of the defence — that Poyser pointed the finger at the “wrong people” because he was scared of the real killers and because he wanted to get a “deal out of this.”
After Hagley’s murder, police traced a black SUV used as the getaway car to Poyser’s mother. He was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and agreed to give a statement to police implicating the twins and Ali-Nur.
Poyser, 26, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to murder and was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. The prosecution said “he got the sentence that he deserved for what he did” and that he got no favours from them or police. The defence called it a “sweet deal.”
Neither the Shaws nor AliNur testified. Bojanowska said it was decided that wasn’t necessary “in light of the very weak evidence.”
Shankaran said Poyser, like many witnesses, was not perfect, but he believed he was telling the truth. The detective added there was also corroborative evidence that backed up Poyser, such as video surveillance outside the Pizza Pizza that matched his account of what transpired.
“This wasn’t just a case of a single witness coming forward and pointing the finger,” Shankaran said.
But there was no convincing Sharon Shaw.
“My boys are innocent” and have no criminal records, she said, tears pouring down her face as she stood outside the courthouse.
She said she believes Poyser lied “to cover for the real killers,” because “he’s afraid.”
No motive was identified for the shooting.