A Brantford police officer walked a judge through what was found at the Brantford home of Larry Reynolds and Dorothy Lynn Van Every, including a barrage of bullet holes, broken glass and the lifeless bodies of the couple.
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Cst. David Fishback was sent to the murder scene as a forensic officer once it was confirmed that emergency services had stopped resuscitation attempts on Reynolds and Van Every.
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“There was a substantial amount of broken glass,” Fishback testified at the trial of Malik Mbuyi on Tuesday,
“It was piled up in layers and covered the entry mat.”
Fishback showed photos and videos and put his hand through one of the broken windows of a door from the murder scene to demonstrate the damage.
Mbuyi has pleaded not guilty to the double homicide and a charge of conspiracy to commit murder.
While a total of seven men were charged in the four-and-a-half-year-old murders, Crown attorney Shane Hickingbottom said earlier this week that it was Mbuyi who was the gunman seen running up to the home on Park Road South with a gun pointed toward the front door, firing wildly at Reynolds, who was watering some newly seeded front lawn.
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Reynolds was able to stumble into the house, followed by his wife, who slammed and locked the door but the gunman aimed multiple shots at the doors, hitting Van Every in the head.
Both died within minutes of each other.
Fishback outlined the locations of at least 13 bullets that hit the front porch, brickwork and the storm door and front door, both of which were in court as exhibits.
Also on the stand has been Kareem Zedan, who previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the case and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Zedan, who also testified against another accused, said he took a contract for $50,000 to kill a guy named ‘Sago’, otherwise known as Roger Van Every, an admitted drug dealer in Brantford.
“Somebody the guy wanted dead.”
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Zedan outlined how he requested a stolen vehicle for the job and assembled a crew of friends and acquaintances from Toronto.
“I really wasn’t going to do it until I needed the money,” he said about a long delay in actually arranging the job.
Zedan was walked through available video footage – some taken from the vantage-point of the Reynolds/Van Every house and some from across a nearby park – identifying himself walking up to the house to scout out the situation.
“I saw the camera see my face and went back to the car,” he said, adding that he warned the others there were cameras.
After driving to Trillium Way to try and connect with the man offering the contract, Zedan and the others returned to Park Road South, circling the house.
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“I made the decision to see who fit the description and green-lighted it,” said Zedan, explaining he told Mbuyi to go shoot the guy they could see on the front porch.
“We thought he was the guy.”
Zedan said Mbuyi owed him “almost 20 grand” and was going to do the hit with his 9mm gun as a way of paying it off.
“At first, he told me someone else might have got shot too. And that he might have cut himself at the house,” said Zedan. “I was pissed off (because I thought) DNA would come back to us.”
Zedan was under intense cross-examination throughout Wednesday.
The case, scheduled for four weeks, continues Thursday.
@EXPSGamble
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