In a computer-generated video shown in court Thursday, a black car passed the home of homicide victims Larry Reynolds and Lynn Van Every time and time again.
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Pausing repeatedly on quiet Edgewood Avenue, beside Mohawk Park, the car occasionally used a different route to circle the house 17 times, but mainly looped around Fairmount Avenue, a street a short block away.
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Echo Place School surveillance cameras picked up the activity, as well as detailed GPS data from the car’s infotainment system
“The average user of a car probably doesn’t even know this data exists,” said Special Cst. Michael Ryder, a digital forensic analyst with the OPP, at the Hamilton trial of Malik Mbuyi, who stands accused of killing the couple.
The Crown said Reynolds and Van Every were innocent victims of a Toronto crew of five who were seeking to fulfill a contracted ‘hit’ on their son, drug dealer Roger Van Every on July 18, 2019.
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Reynolds, 64, and his 62-year-old wife were in front of the house when shooting began. Bullets hit the front porch, doors and brickwork, along with the couple.
While the couple managed to get inside the bungalow, both died in the small front foyer.
Ryder explained how the GPS data was used to precisely track the Chrysler 300 used in the crime, beginning with its theft.
In 2020 Nathan Howes and Kevin Jellis pleaded guilty to extortion and robbery by stealing the Chrysler from a Paris man by threatening to cut off his fingers. Howes faces other charges in the double homicide but has not yet come to trial.
The car was driven to Richmond Hill and appeared not to move for two months until it was driven to Brantford on the morning of the homicides.
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Defense lawyer Monty McGregor asked whether the system’s GPS tracker could have been turned off and Ryder agreed it could.
The Crown team of lawyers prosecuting Mbuyi also presented facts that had been agreed upon with the defense, including a statement from a now-deceased neighbor, who lived on Fairmount Avenue at the time of the homicides, who told police he saw two vehicles and several Black men on his street.
At one point, the neighbor said, “the bigger, huskier Black male jumped into the driver’s seat” of the Chrysler and, soon afterwards, he heard “popping sounds” that he said sounded like a nail gun going off.
A former Paris man also testified Thursday, telling how he was robbed of the “mint condition” Chrysler, after being beaten and viciously threatened.
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The lawyers also agreed that after the vehicle was stolen it was wiped down with Lysol wipes.
The vehicle was found abandoned after the couple was killed. A forensic examination found numerous spots of blood on the dashboard, driver’s seat-belt buckle and center console all from one male.
Kareem Zedan, already convicted for being one of those in the crew seeking to kill the couple’s son, Roger Van Every, said Mbuyi had cut himself at the scene of the shooting.
The lawyers in the case also discussed the possibility of a new defense being raised that could result in recalling earlier witnesses who are in custody, including Zedan and Roger Van Every.
No testimony will be heard Friday but the case returns Monday morning.
The case before a judge only is expected to run another two to three weeks and will hear a Charter argument toward the end of the proceedings.
@EXPSGamble
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