Friday, December 5, 2014

Second charge laid against Toronto cop in Sammy Yatim shooting

Const. James Forcillo had already been charged with second-degree murder in the death of the teenager on a streetcar last summer.

Const. James Forcillo, left, shown with his wife Irina in June, is now facing charges of both second-degree murder and attempted murder.
Nathan Denette / THE CANADIAN PRESS FiLE PHOTO
Const. James Forcillo, left, shown with his wife Irina in June, is now facing charges of both second-degree murder and attempted murder.
 
By: Staff Reporter, Published on Wed Jul 30 2014
 
The new indictment against James Forcillo filed in court on Monday.
The Toronto officer charged with second-degree murder in the streetcar shooting of Sammy Yatim last summer has been charged again.
 
On Wednesday, the Crown revealed that it had added the charge of attempted murder to the indictment of Const. James Forcillo, leaving him in an apparent contradiction: prosecutors claim he both murdered and attempted to murder the Toronto teen.
 
Yatim was killed after brandishing a small knife on the Dundas streetcar last July. Once passengers evacuated the TTC vehicle, several police officers approached the open front doors and ordered Yatim to drop the knife.
 
Several videos of the event show a single officer — later identified as Forcillo — firing nine times, leaving the boy crumpled on the floor. Yatim was then Tasered and handcuffed before being taken to hospital.

Calvin Barry, who has worked both sides of murder trials — first as a Crown prosecutor and now as a defence lawyer — says he’s never seen a person charged with murder and attempted murder in the same case.
 
“It could have the effect of creating a charge to the jury which would be somewhat complex and, on the face of it, inconsistent,” said Barry, who is not involved in the case.

“In the law, an attempted murderer is just a lucky murderer,” said criminal defence lawyer Nader Hasan, who is not involved in the case. “An attempted murder involves all the same intent, but the victim doesn’t die. Yet in this case, the victim did die.”
 
Characterizing it as a “pretty clear case of second-degree murder,” Hasan said the Crown could be opening up the door for a plea bargain.
 
Because second-degree murder carries a mandatory life sentence with no parole for 10 years, while attempted murder means a mandatory five years, “it may provide an opportunity for the officer to plead to something lesser than murder,” said Hasan.
 
Toronto Police Association president Mike McCormack disagrees, saying the Crown has indicated it will be fully prosecuting the case.
 
“No plea is happening here,” McCormack said.
 
Another theory is that the Crown is concerned that it won’t be able to prove Yatim died from the bullets.
 
“In order to prove second-degree murder, the Crown has to prove not only that Const. Forcillo had the required intent and carried out this intent by shooting at Sammy Yatim, but also that his shooting caused Sammy Yatim’s death,” wrote Gerald Chan, a criminal defence lawyer who isn’t involved in the case.
 
Yatim’s cause of death might turn out to be heart failure, which could be attributed to the Tasering, said Brian Heller, another uninvolved criminal lawyer.
 
“So he might have died from the Tasering before he died from the shots,” Heller said.
 
In this way, Forcillo’s lawyers may try to argue that he didn’t cause Yatim’s death and the Crown would have to fall back on attempted murder.
 
“Might the sustaining of the shots have diminished his capacity to withstand the force of the Tasering?” Heller asked.
 
After a court appearance Wednesday morning, Forcillo’s lawyer, Lawrence Gridin, said the new charge indicates weakness in the Crown’s case.
 
“The Crown’s changing theory just highlights that this case is by no means clear-cut, and we are looking forward to presenting a strong defence,” Gridin wrote in an email to the Star.
 
McCormack claimed the two charges are contradictory.
 
“We’re scratching our heads; the public is scratching their heads; no one understands it,” he said. “To us, it’s like throwing all sorts of stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks.”
 
After discussing the case with Forcillo’s lawyers, McCormack speculated that the new charge might reflect the officer having felt threatened by Yatim.
 
“It seems Forcillo could have been justified in firing some but not all of the shots,” he said.
 
The second charge comes only days after the one-year anniversary of the shooting. Last weekend, Yatim’s father, Nabil (Bill) said in a statement that his son “did not deserve to die this way.”

http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2014/07/30/toronto_cop_charged_with_attempted_murder_in_sammy_yatim_shooting.html