A Toronto teenager lost his life and two young men now face prison sentences for an $ 80 bag of marijuana.
On Tuesday, Emmett Carew, 21, and Cheddi Itwaroo, 22, pleaded guilty in Superior Court to the reduced charge of manslaughter for the May 6, 2019 stabbing death of Brendon Bowler, a 17-year-old student at the Sir Wilfrid Laurier Collegiate Institute. .
Each man was originally charged with second degree murder, but the judge in a preliminary hearing had raised the charge to first degree murder after prosecutors requested evidence of planning and deliberation. The guilty pleas mean a trial scheduled for January was canceled.
Reading an agreed statement of fact, Crown attorney Bryan Guertin told the court that Carew and Itwaroo were good friends who had previously attended Laurier but did not know Bowler prior to their unfortunate encounter.
The day before his death, Carew leaned into the passenger window of a car parked near the school and showed Bowler a bag of weed to buy. It belonged to Itwaroo, who was not present.
“Mr. Bowler removed some of the marijuana and there was a discussion about the quality of the product and whether $ 80 was a fair price,” Guertin told Judge Maureen Forestell in a courtroom in downtown Toronto. “As a result of the Mr. Bowler’s behavior, Mr. Carew began to fear that he would not receive payment, so he tried to get the bag back. Mr. Bowler refused to hand over the bag. “
Accounts differ as to what happened next. But it is indisputable that there was a physical altercation between Bowler and Carew, which ended when the car drove away with Carew yelling that he had been stolen.
The next day, Bowler was sitting with other students on some benches near Guildwood Plaza, a common place for Laurier students to hang out at lunch.
Itwaroo, who was on her cell phone with Carew, approached the bench yelling in Bowler’s direction. A fight broke out after which Carew arrived, armed with a machete at his waist and a small folding knife in his pocket. Things escalated and Carew handed the machete to Itwaroo while holding the smaller knife.
“The scene became chaotic when numerous people began to flee,” said the prosecutor. Carew “honestly believed that he saw Mr. Bowler with a small open knife in his hand.”
There was a fight and Carew stabbed Bowler once in the chest. The blade penetrated his heart so hard that one of his ribs broke. He took a few steps, collapsed, and was rushed to hospital, where he died.
Police arrested Carew and Itwaroo a short distance from the school. Carew held Itwaroo’s bag containing the machete, its sheath, and the small folding knife. Both blades had wet Bowler’s blood. Carew’s hands were stained with blood and he was bruised. Itwaroo’s hands and shirt were stained with blood.
On the way to the police station, Carew repeatedly asked about Bowler’s well-being and told the officer that he was not supposed to “go down that road.” When he heard that Bowler had died, he expressed disbelief, Crown’s attorney said.
Bowler’s cause of death was a stab in the chest.
The defense and the prosecution jointly request that Carew receive a prison sentence of nine years and Itwaroo received eight years, less time served by pretrial detention. The two men remain free on bail and are scheduled to appear in court on January 19 to receive sentencing.
Reference-www.thestar.com