Man acquitted of murder in Andre Moore slaying

Man acquitted of murder in Andre Moore slaying 

By Sam Pazzano

 

TORONTO - A Scarborough construction worker was acquitted Thursday of murdering the brother of accused serial killer Mark Moore.
Aftern 17 hours of deliberations, a Superior Court jury cleared Kenya Smith, 33, of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Andre Moore, 27, in a laneway near Eglinton Ave. E. and Markham Rd. on Oct. 14, 2008.
“This case was fairly prosecuted by the Scarborough Crown’s office and fairly investigated by the homicide squad and the jury had all the evidence it required to reach the right verdict,” said defence lawyer Gary Grill.
“Mr. Smith committed a violent act out of fear and he hopes to return to his previously peaceful life again,” said Grill of his client, who has no prior convictions.
Smith walked out of the courtroom a free man.
Smith, 33, testified last week that he was defending himself when he shot Moore because the two had met previously.
Moore shot at and tried unsuccessfully to rob Smith in an apartment building hallway in August 2008.
Smith said he also feared Moore’s brother Mark, who was charged last week with four counts of first-degree murder.
Andre Moore’s criminal record included a 2002 gun possession conviction but despite frequent crimes since then he had no other gun convictions.
Court heard Smith stopped his vehicle in the laneway and spotted Moore just after noon on Oct. 14, 2008. Smith believed he was reaching for his firearm, but Crown attorney Sean Hickey said in his closing that Moore was packing only his lunch and a bright red umbrella.
He urged the jury to disbelieve that Moore had shot at Smith two months earlier.
“There is no credible evidence there was a shooting in the hallway in 2008,” said Hickey.
It wasn’t a planned encounter but a chance meeting. But Smith wanted to exact revenge against Moore, argued Hickey.
Forensic evidence backed the Crown’s theory that Smith fired through the driver’s window, shattering the glass and then the gunman opened the door to put a bullet into Moore’s temple as he lay wounded on the ground.

NOW SHE GOT WHAT SHE DESERVE!

Alleged serial killer's mom arrested 

By Rob Lamberti

Police arrested Hyacinth Moore, mother of Mark Garfield Moore, on Wednesday. (ERNEST DOROSZUK, Toronto Sun)

The mother of an alleged serial killer was charged Wednesday with being an accessory to murder.
Hyacinth Moore, 49, mother of Mark Garfield Moore, was arrested at her McCowan Rd. apartment around 5 p.m. without incident.
She faces charges which include being an accessory after the fact of murder and obstructing police.
Toronto Police said the woman is accused of helping her son destroy evidence in a homicide and robbery investigation.
Mark, a rapper with the stage name Prezidenteeh, is charged with 54 offences, including four of first-degree murder. He’s also accused of robbing a jewellery store, an attempted murder and a string of drive-by and shooting charges — all in 2010.
Police launched Project Summit focusing on him in the spring.
Detectives expect there will be more arrests in the coming weeks and are also reviewing other unsolved murders.
Police sources alleged Hyacinth’s murder accessory charge relates to the Sept. 10, 2010, slaying of Jahmeel Spence.
Mark is also charged with the Sept. 29, 2010, murders of Courthney Facey and Mike James, and the Nov. 24, 2010 murder of Carl Cole.
Mark is also alleged to have robbed Arax Jewellers on Aug. 9, 2010. A clerk was shot and wounded in that incident.
Police searched the family apartment Wednesday evening for evidence.
She is expected to appear in College Park court Thursday morning.
Hyacinth filed a complaint with police alleging a member of the Gun and Gang Task Force left behind a shotgun on a son’s bed during a search of her apartment this past August.
Another son, Andre, who was murdered in 2008, is considered by police to be the man who shot and wounded Toronto cop Antonio Macias in 2001.

Toronto man charged with four murders

Toronto man charged with four murders

Mark Garfield Moore, 27, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder for a series of fatal shootings in Toronto between June and November in 2010. (Handout)

"HELL WOULD REFUSE HIM"

A 27-year-old Toronto man has been charged with the murders of four people.
Mark Moore has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Jahmeel Spence, Courtney Facey, Mike James and Carl Cole. All were murdered in 2010 between June and November.
Police are announcing details live on CP24 right now.
More to come…

Murder victim was in court for brutal kidnapping 

Dane Dillon, 27, was before the courts on 2010 kidnapping charges. (Supplied photo)

TORONTO - A 27-year-old gunned down in the city’s east end over the weekend — just steps away from a memorial event for another Thanksgiving murder victim — was allegedly among a group of thugs who kidnapped, tortured and held a man for ransom last year.

Toronto Police don’t believe Dane Dillon’s slaying had anything to do with the violent abduction or Sunday’s gathering to remember Kareme Parks, 20, who was shot and killed at the same housing complex in 2006.
“But I am hoping somebody at that memorial saw what happened,” homicide Det.-Sgt. Pauline Gray said Tuesday.
She said there were “a lot of people” at the O’Connor Community Centre and those who lingered afterward may have witnessed the shooting out front of the nearby highrise off Victoria Park Ave. south of Eglinton Ave. E.
Even if they saw something leading up to the murder, someone being shoved, Gray said such information could be helpful.
“It may seem totally innocuous but we want to know about it,” she said.
Police were called to 90 Parma Ct. just after 11 p.m. Sunday and found Dillon in the parking lot suffering from fatal gunshot wounds to his torso.
Detectives are viewing video seized from several cameras but so far haven’t released a description of the gunman.
Earlier in the day an event was held in Regent Park to remember seven murder victims slain on Thanksgiving over the last five years.
Parks’ mother Debbie attended that event, then hours later held her own memorial in the community centre at Parma Ct. for her son, who was shot dead at a nearby basketball court.
“I don’t believe that event had anything to do with the homicide,” Gray said.
Dillon is now the eighth person to be killed in Toronto on Thanksgiving in five years. He’s also the city’s 37th murder victim of the year.
The Scarborough resident and four others were accused of abducting a man near Jane St. and Wilson Ave. and burning him with a clothes iron in April, 2010.
They allegedly drove the 24-year-old to a hideout in Hamilton and demanded a five-figure ransom from his family. The victim was released in Toronto a day later and no money was paid to his captors.
Gray urged people to remember the charges against Dillon were still before the courts.
And regardless of whether or not he was an unsavoury character, she said his killer remains on the loose and he’s thought to be armed and dangerous

Slain 20 year old's cousin also a murder victim

By Jenny Yuen

Christopher Rookwood, 20, was shot and killed in a townhouse complex on Tobermory Dr. early Saturday morning.

TORONTO - Patricia Ellis can’t believe she’s lost two nephews to gun violence in just over a year.
The aunt of Christopher Rookwood — the city’s 39th and latest murder victim — is now reliving the nightmare of grieving over another family member.
Rookwood’s cousin Nate Thompson was lured to a Jane-Sheppard townhouse complex and shot in the head in August 2010.
And on Saturday, Ellis heard the news that 20-year-old Rookwood was shot to death at another nearby townhouse complex on Tobermory Dr., near Finch Ave. W.
“I don’t know why he was there,” Ellis, 50, said. “He was at the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s so hard. I love him so much.”
Police arrived at a townhouse complex at 32 Torbermory Dr. around 2 a.m. and found the 20-year-old with a gunshot wound to the chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene and “suffered significant injuries,” said Staff Sgt. Frank Barredo.
Another man later showed up at Humber Regional Hospital with a gun shot wound to the leg.
“He was unco-operative, but we believe the incidents to be connected,” Barredo said.
Rookwood had a hard life with an absent father out of the picture, Ellis said. His mother. Bertha, 50, remains in Jamaica. She sent him to Canada for a better life. He never hung around gangs or got involved with drugs.
Rookwood just turned 20 on Sept.19.
“Whoever has these guns, I want them to get rid of these people,” she said.
No word yet on funeral arrangements, but the family is organizing a trust fund in Rookwood’s name.
Several males may have been involved and as many as 10 shots may have been fired, Barredo said.
At the other end of the city, Toronto Police are continuing to piece together why a 19-year-old was shot in a stairwell of an east-end apartment high-rise.
Officers continued to combed 90 Eastdale Ave. in the Main St.-Danforth Ave. area Saturday after Bradley Matheson, 19, was found shot in the chest Friday afternoon in the north stairwell between the fifth and sixth floors. He died at the scene.
“At this point, he isn’t somebody who is known to us, other than contact cards,” said homicide Det. Sgt. Gary Giroux. “We’re turning to those two highrise buildings because they’re connected to determine what was going on. There’s video that we’re pouring over and there’s a canvass as well.”