Another person arrested after a Windsor man was shot, dismembered and burned on Walpole Island in 2021 has pleaded guilty to a charge – trafficking firearms – linked to a year-long police probe that spread across Southwestern Ontario and swept up eight suspects.
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The suspects were arrested – six of them for first-degree murder – during a lengthy OPP investigation after the remains of Oyebode Oyenuga, a 25-year-old Windsor man, were discovered on the First Nation between Sarnia and Chatham on March 17, 2021.
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Drew Bliss, 36, of Chatham-Kent was first of the eight to be arrested, although it wasn’t clear at the time. His arrest on Aug. 5, 2021, featuring a long list of gun- and drug-related offenses, appeared at the time to be a separate case.
But more than two months later police announced they had also charged Bliss with trafficking a firearm in the Oyenuga homicide investigation. Bliss, released on lease In March 2022, recently pleaded guilty to the charge and will be sentenced in early April.
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An agreed statement of facts wasn’t read at the time as the lawyers asked the judge to move that to his sentencing hearing. David Rows, Lambton’s former Crown attorney who is still prosecuting the case, explained to Justice Paul Kowalyshyn he was still sorting out with Bliss’ lawyer, Gregory McGivern, what facts will be included.
“The basic parameters are understood by all parties,” he said.
But the court heard the charge Bliss, 38, pleaded guilty to being linked to a Springfield XD-9 handgun he illegally transferred at some point – he didn’t say to whom – between Jan. 1 and Feb. 3, 2021.
A group from the Windsor drug subculture hatched a plan to teach Oyenuga a lesson on Feb. 2, 2021 and drove him, while passed out on drugs, to Walpole Island late that night, another court recently heard during two other accused’s sentencing hearings. The University of Windsor computer science student was shot multiple times in the head in an area near Pump House Road and his body was dragged into a brushy area and burned, the court heard.
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Bliss, from the Chatham-Kent beach town of Erieau, also pleaded guilty to possession of fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking in his hometown on Aug. 5, 2021. Rows told Kowalyshyn there still may be one other guilty plea upcoming. He also said he and McGivern will be suggesting the same sentence when the case returns in April, although he didn’t say what that will be.
Rolf Agard, 34, who has ties to Windsor and Mississauga, was recently handed 12 years in prison for kidnapping and manslaughter and Dejour Millington, 25, of Toronto drew a 20-month jail sentence for offering an indignity to human remains. Shortly after their respective guilty pleas two other suspects charged with first-degree murder were cleared of all charges In this case. Charges against three other suspects are still before the courts.
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Initially classified as a suspicious death, it was confirmed by police as a homicide in June 2021, nearly three months after Oyenuga’s remains were found and four months after his family first reported him missing. Little was known about the case over the next 2.5 years until a Sarnia courtroom recently heard an agreed statement of facts following Agard’s and Millington’s guilty pleas.
Oyenuga, who was dealing with a substance-abuse issue, puts the group of suspects through the Windsor drug subculture. He fought Agard in a fit of jealousy over a woman and drew blood, prompting the group to want to teach him a lesson, the court heard.
While passed out on drugs, Oyenuga was driven in his white 2015 BMW to Walpole Island while a second car followed. After he was killed, his body was dismembered, put in garbage bags and tossed in the area of Dynamite Cut Road, about two to three kilometers from the shooting scene, and his BMW was driven to a covered parking garage in Kitchener and wiped down, the court heard.
Oyenuga’s family reported him missing to Windsor police three days later. Police went public with a plea to help find him in early March. On March 17, 2021, Walpole Island police found the burned and dismembered remains. Oyenuga’s identity was confirmed by DNA testing at the Center of Forensic Sciences in Toronto.
In April 2021, investigators found the site of the shooting and burning. There they discovered human bone fragments, three nine-millimeter shell casings and a cellphone. A major witness came forward soon after.
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