Leonard Pinnock, 33, was sitting in his car waiting for a friend whose hair was being braided inside a Dufferin Street barber shop when two gunmen sprayed his vehicle with bullets and killed him.
It had been an impromptu trip from Hamilton to Toronto on April 21, 2017, as far as no one knew the DJ and father of a young daughter I’d be in that parking lot around 9:30 p.m.
That night Toronto police brought in the canine unit to follow the scent trail of the fleeing suspects. Within hours, the nose of a sniffer dog led officers to a black Louis Vuitton hoodie found in a driveway between two houses, about 500 meters from the crime scene, north of Eglinton. Avenue West. Nearby was a firearm, a Glock, the kind used by the police. Ballistic tests determined that it was one of the murder weapons.
Days later, the Forensic Science Center was successful. On the inner sleeve of the hoodie was the DNA of Akil Whyte, who at the time was under investigation by Toronto police for alleged gang activity.
Investigators, led by homicides Det. Sergeant. Jeff Allington also recovered surveillance video that captured shocking images of two men crossing the Dufferin Street parking lot and opening fire on Pinnock’s four-door Toyota Corolla. Each man fired six shots. One of the shooters was wearing what appeared to be a hooded sweatshirt, and the camera captured part of his face obscured by the raised hood and night lighting.
At the time, police described the attack as “choreographed” and “unprovoked”.
While Allington suspected Whyte was the gunman who discarded both his hoodie and the firearm, he was not ready to make an arrest. Police were still looking for the other gunman and the driver who deposited the killers near the parking lot. Allington also knew that an active investigation into TPS guns and gangs was underway.
In June 2017, Toronto police revealed that more than 100 people had been charged with Project Kronic against the Driftwood Crips, a street gang in northwest Toronto. Whyte was charged with conspiracy to traffic cocaine. In September, the homicide squad announced that they were looking for him in the Pinnock case.
But Whyte was nowhere to be found. A warrant was issued across Canada and his name and mugshot were added to the country’s Most Wanted list. The trail went cold until July 2019, when the U.S. Sheriff picked up Whyte in Atlanta, Georgia. Allington flew in and brought Whyte back to Canada to stand trial for first degree murder.
Early last month, Whyte’s trial finally began in person in downtown Toronto Superior Court in front of Judge Peter Bawden. He’s hearing the case without a jury. During the trial, Whyte, now 29, took the stand and testified from the jury box due to the pandemic. He admitted to being a drug dealer, but denied having anything to do with Pinnock’s death. He also explained that he went to Atlanta for the warm weather and to visit a friend.
During his closing speech this week, defense attorney Anthony Robbins vigorously argued his client’s innocence. Whyte knew neither Pinnock nor his friend, nor was there any connection between the Hamilton area, where they lived, and the Whyte neighborhood, an apparent reference to cases in which the victims have been killed not because of who they are but because of the place where they live.
Robbins described the Crown case as largely circumstantial, saying that “there is much evidence that is inconsistent with Akil Whyte’s guilt.”
For example, at the time of the murder, Whyte knew that he was under police surveillance, so it was “absurd” to think that, in that situation, he was going to commit murder. He also dismissed other evidence from Crown, such as the shooter’s gait resembling Whyte’s pigeon-toed gait, or resembling the shooter whose face was partially captured on surveillance camera.
While images shown in court suggested that the shooter and Whyte have similar high cheekbones, Robbins said the shooter’s face is fatter and rounder than his client.
But the veteran Toronto defender focused most of his attention on the DNA found on the hoodie. He acknowledged that it was “key” evidence in the case, and that without it, the “Crown would not have a case.”
Robbins does not deny that the DNA belongs to his client.
“His DNA is on that hoodie, one of the other three donors,” he said during his animated closing that included poking his finger to point and, on one occasion, pulling his black lawyer coat off his shoulders to demonstrate the different ways people get naked. . Whyte’s DNA was a major contributor to the genetic sample, the other two minor forensic experts testified during the trial.
However, Robbins argued that the hoodie “doesn’t even come close to proving he’s the shooter,” noting that there is no evidence Whyte ever owns or wears such a garment.
A plausible explanation for the existence of his client’s DNA on the hoodie is that “the shooter did not wear the LV hoodie,” Robbins said. To prove his point, Robbins replayed the video that he said failed to capture the uneven laces dangling from the seized hoodie. This led the judge to suggest that the ropes were perhaps “hidden”. The lawyer agreed that it was plausible, but also “purely speculative.”
He also urged the judge to take note that there is “zero, not a single GSR particle,” firearm powder residue, on the hoodie.
Another explanation for the DNA evidence is that Whyte wore the hoodie “at some point,” though that doesn’t mean he was the last person to wear it. The DNA could have “stayed on him for up to a year” and since he “sweats a lot,” he had a much better chance of leaving his DNA on the garment, Robbins said Tuesday.
He was ready to finish his closing arguments on Wednesday, when prosecutors were supposed to deliver their closing remarks. However, Bawden decided it would be best if the case were postponed until mid-January, when both parties will have a chance to summarize their positions.
Reference-www.thestar.com