Man found guilty of first-degree murder in 2017 death of Hamilton man who was shot while sitting in a parked car
The family of Leonard Pinnock, fatally shot sitting in a car parked in a Dufferin Street plaza, erupted with cheers and applause in a downtown Toronto court Thursday after a judge convicted Akil Whyte of first-degree murder in the 33-year-old Hamilton's father death.
While Superior Court Justice Peter Bawden acknowledged the Crown had failed to prove a motive, he said there was enough other persuasive circumstantial evidence that Whyte and another unknown male were responsible for opening fire on the unsuspecting victim.
The motives of killers are frequently unknown or inexplicable," Bawden said, reading his lengthy judgment in court. Yet the evidence convinces me beyond any reasonable doubt that Mr. Whyte committed the murder."
After the April 21, 2017 killing, Whyte fled Toronto and was apprehended by police in Atlanta, Ga. two years later.
One of the strongest pieces of evidence was the fact that Whyte turned off his cellphone the morning of the murder.
I have no doubt that Akil Whyte was aware that if his cellphone remained active, the record of his communications could be used to establish his location," Bawden said. The admitted drug dealer was an inveterate phone user, with records showing he made more than 1,000 phone calls and sent 328 text messages in a one-month period before the murder.
Whyte's DNA was on the cuff of an LV hoodie found near the crime scene. The Crown alleged the killer discarded it as he fled the scene, and Bawden concurred.
Whyte testified he had no involvement, but the judge rejected his evidence as unreliable.
Bawden recapped the evidence heard during the trial, conducted without a jury.
Pinnock lived in Hamilton and, on the morning of the day he died, he drove to Toronto with his friend, who asked for a lift to have his hair braided. They left around 11 a.m., but Cassidy didn't get in to see a stylist until just before 7 p.m.
Pinnock was still waiting in the car two and a half hours later when two killers were driven to the scene in a white SUV. They walked directly to the car and opened fire. Twelve shots were fired, six from each gun.
This murder appeared to be an outright assassination," Bawden said.
The judge said there are many gaps in the evidence concerning how the killers knew Pinnock would be parked at the plaza that night, and why he was targeted, but that he did not find the friend to be a credible witness, and it is difficult not to suspect that he played some role in divulging Mr. Pinnock's whereabouts to the killers."
Whyte receives an automatic sentence to life imprisonment with no parole eligibility for 25 years.
Betsy Powell is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and courts for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @powellbetsy