The Crown alleges that four men on trial for first-degree murder formed a quartet of killers who played various roles in an elaborate plot to kill a Hells Angels debt collector in Mississauga in March 2019, a Brampton jury heard Friday.
During his closing speech to the jury, prosecutor Brian McGuire argued that the four men “acted as a team. They had a goal: that was murder, ”of Michael Deabaitua-Schulde, 32, of Mississauga, who was shot and killed shortly after 11 am, moments after leaving a gym in a busy Mississauga plaza on the 11th. March 2019.
The men were unaware that Deabaitua-Schulde was being watched by police as part of an Ontario Provincial Police investigation into his alleged involvement in an alleged elaborate illegal gambling operation. Deabaitua-Schulde was observed by police picking up and delivering packages to numerous people during the sting operation, called Project Hobart, jury has heard.
“This was not a robbery or sloppy collection, but a planned and deliberate murder,” McGuire said, adding that the murder had the characteristics of a gang-style murder. “These men were meant to be untraceable.”
On the day of his murder, OPP investigators followed the motorcyclist to Huf Gym in Mississauga, where he was doing an exercise routine. Police saw the motorcyclist running into the gym after he was shot.
The Crown alleges that the two main shooters were Marckens Vilme and Brandon Reyes, with Joseph Pallotta and Marc Issa El-Khoury serving as escape drivers at two separate locations. All four are charged with first degree murder.
“The two shooters were to ensure numerical superiority over their only target,” McGuire said, adding that Pallotta brought his co-defendant to the scene of the murder, Huf Gym in the busy plaza at 700 Dundas St. E., near Cawthra. . Road, where Deabaitua-Schulde was caught on video leaving after his workout.
“The silver revolver that we say Mr. Reyes used has six empty cartridges in the barrel,” McGuire said.
Deabaitua-Schulde, 32, a well-known member of the Niagara region arm of the Hells Angels, was shot six point-blank while at the side of his vehicle and then while running to the gym for help after several people dressed in dark clothing will approach him. clothes outside the gym.
“Call 911!” The bloodied motorcycle gang member is heard pleading as he is seen on video running to the gym, as his pursuers fire another shot at the facility.
The killers used an untraceable blue Honda Civic that had its license plates stolen just days earlier, McGuire said as he explained how the plot was executed. Police found phone messages indicating where the stolen Honda license plate was left in Scarborough. The Crown alleges that Pallotta, who is videotaped filling a gas can, set the Honda on fire after the murder.
Issa El-Khoury, driving a Hyundai Sante Fe, waited for the men at the meeting point on Rymal Road, Mississauga, aiming to take them away after setting the car on fire, McGuire said. The men had originally gone to Deabaitua-Schulde’s Mississauga home to locate him, but he had already gone to the gym.
The OPP surveillance team also saw the Sante Fe, on the morning of March 11, when it first visited the vicinity of the house in the Rymal Road area of Deabaitua-Schulde.
“They got caught because of two unlucky blows that tripped them,” McGuire said, adding that the Hells Angels are sometimes the target of their underground rivals, although the Crown cannot pinpoint who wanted to kill Deabaitua-Schulde.
McGuire said the cars were linked to the murder when an OPP surveillance officer took a photo of Sante Fe’s license plates, after following the men in the Honda to the second meeting point on Rymal Road, at two minute drive from the scene of the shooting. scene.
Police found a blue Honda Civic on fire near Rymal Road and Tomken Road. Witnesses said the suspects fled the scene of the shooting in a Honda.
He said Issa El-Khoury, while causing the men to escape at the Sante Fe, evaded a police officer who was following him to return to Toronto.
Police were able to connect the men to the vehicles because two patrolling Peel police officers accidentally decided to pass Quebec license plates from the Sante Fe while it was parked in the parking lot of a Brampton Motel 6 the morning of the murder.
McGuire said the four men were inside the motel ending the execution at the time.
“Bad luck!” McGuire said. “With these two pieces of information, the police were able to quickly locate the Motel 6 as the starting point of the plan.”
Using the videos of the men at the Motel 6 and forensic evidence, “the four conspirators were quickly arrested,” McGuire said.
McGuire said the plot began long before the shooting. The plates were stolen in Scarborough on February 26. That same day, a tracking device, attached to Deabaitua-Schulde’s Jeep, began recording the target’s whereabouts. The device was manually checked at least 140 times from February 26 to the morning of March 11, Crown said.
“It is clear that Mr. Deabaitua-Schulde was being tracked,” said McGuire. Pallotta checked into Motel 6 under a false name on March 7. “Now the conspirators just have to wait until he’s alone and vulnerable, and shoot him dead.”
Defense teams for Vilme and Reyes, who were 28 and 24, respectively, at the time of the shooting, say the Crown has been unable to prove the charge of first-degree murder. Both men were arrested by Montreal police a few days after the murder.
Attorneys for Pallotta, then 38, and Issa El-Khoury, then 26, also from Montreal, also argued that the Crown has not proven the charge against the two.
Vilme’s lawyer argued that he only fired one shot into the gym. Pallotta’s attorney told the jury that his client set the Honda on fire and was a driver, but was not a gunman. Issa El-Khoury’s lawyer claimed he was out for a walk with Vilme when the shooting occurred.
Reyes’ defense team says he is just an accessory after the fact because he helped Pallotta get out of the city of Toronto by purchasing a VIA train ticket.
The judge will give her final instructions to the jury next week.
Reference-www.thestar.com