A Mississauga teen was stabbed and left for dead near a Clarkson-area park in December 2018 on a drug debt, a Brampton prosecutor told jury at the start of the trial of two brothers charged with the teen’s murder.
In opening the prosecutor’s case to the jury, Crown attorney Jennifer Goulin laid out a number of allegations in the Crown theory of what happened, including how a friend of Riley Driver-Martin, who had gone in Searching for the teenager after being told he was stabbed, he found his lifeless body lying face down on a walkway near Meadow Park on the morning of December 7, 2018.
“There was blood, his friend was pale and his friend was dead,” Goulin said in his opening remarks, an account that prompted defense attorneys for the accused brothers, Mark and Nicholas Mahabir, to ask the judge to warn the jury that it was not evidence, but the Crown’s theory of events.
The two brothers were in their 20s at the time and charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of 14-year-old Driver-Martin.
Both brothers, who are two of three fraternal triplets, were present in court for the start of the trial on Tuesday.
“Upon examining cell phones, police learned that on December 2, 2018, Riley owed Nicholas Mahabir money for drugs,” Goulin said.
She alleged that the phone messages will show that, in search of drug debt, Nicholas was texting other people in his peer group to inquire about Driver-Martin’s whereabouts.
“Nicholas also confronted Riley in a series of hostile text messages, telling Riley that he was dissatisfied with not paying $ 20,” Goulin said. “The fact that Riley owed Nicholas money and was buying drugs from other people was grossly disrespectful.”
Driver-Martin’s phone was never recovered and there is no record that his phone was answered after 11 p.m. the night before he was found.
Nicholas also made comments to another person that he had stabbed someone multiple times who owed him money for drugs that were described as Xanax, the Crown alleges, adding that information obtained from the investigation estimates that the amount owed by Driver-Martin is for about $ 100.
Goulin said Driver-Martin’s 13-year-old friend, who also lived in the area, called police to inform them that he had found his best friend dead. Police arrived minutes later to find the 14-year-old dead with a stab wound to the abdomen and cuts to his arms, which according to Goulin, medical evidence will show are “wounds that people can receive when they use parts of their body to defend themselves. “. from some kind of attack or protect yourself. ”
The jury also saw images of the street backing up to Meadow Park, in the vicinity of Southdown Rd. And Truscott Dr., of Driver-Martin, wearing a dark gray hoodie and sweat pants, with a pool of blood. close to the head and face.
Goulin said that many of the witnesses will testify about the cell phone conversations and messages shared through social media platforms such as Snapchat.
“In the end, they became a great source of information for the police,” Goulin said.
The jury also heard how rumors began to circulate on the morning of December 7 that Nicholas was responsible.
He said the Crown will present evidence showing that the two defendants visited Driver-Martin’s home the night before, “taking drugs and being expelled.”
Nicholas also told someone that he and Mark Mahabir met with Driver-Martin on the catwalk to discuss drug debt, Goulin said.
“Mark had given Nicholas the knife that was used to stab Riley,” Goulin alleged.
There was an altercation and “Nicholas stabbed Riley in the arm, chest and stomach and Riley fell after the first hit,” he said of the eyewitness accounts.
The knife used was thrown into a sewer, Crown said, adding that the brothers tried to cover their tracks by telling people to erase phone messages and not to speak to police.
Police told the media in 2018 that the homicide investigation was triggered by evidence of trauma to Driver-Martin’s body when he was found around 8 a.m. on Dec. 7.
Reference-www.thestar.com