A jury has found three men guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a 17-year-old boy at a Weston-area pizza shop in 2016.
Jarryl Hagley was sitting at a table at the Pizza Pizza shop on Weston Road near Lawrence Avenue West on Oct. 16, 2016, when three men burst through the door and began firing.
Hagley was struck multiple times and later died in the restaurant’s washroom.
Outside court on Thursday, his mother said she was grateful for the efforts of the jury, the Crown and police, but the end result is nothing to smile about.
“Seeing three young men going to sit behind bars for such a long time…It’s not really something rejoice over,” Delma Hagley said. “It doesn’t change the fact that I will never be able to see him again.”
Police originally charged four men —Mohamed Ali Nur, Shakiyl Shaw, Lenneil Shaw and Winston Poyser — with first-degree murder in connection with the shooting.
One of the men, 26-year-old Poyser, was later charged with accessory after the fact and agreed to testify against the other three accused in exchange for a withdrawal of his murder charge.
Poyser spent a week on the witness stand, identifying the other three as being with him that night, and the Crown also showed surveillance video footage of three of the four men entering and then running away from the Pizza Pizza that night, brandishing firearms.
The jury deliberated for a little more than a day before rendering guilty verdicts.
The mother of Shakiyl and Lenneil Shaw, Sharon Shaw, told reporters outside the courtroom Thursday that she feels Poyser lied while on the stand and the real killers are still at large.
“Wintson Poyser even mentioned that he’d never seen them with a gun before. You know who the right killers are,” she said, referring to Poyser.
“So many times there was fault in what he was saying,” she said later.
She said her sons are “heartbroken” at the verdict.
“I want to tell them I love them so much and I believe in them. I believe them when they say they are innocent.”
Jarryl’s mother Delma said she believed Poyser, as did lead detective in the case, Det. Jason Shankaran.
“He put his life on the line to bring justice for my son and I am very grateful,” she said of Poyser.
She said her son was very loving, and cared deeply for her and his two younger brothers.
Shankaran said there was more than one witness supporting the prosecution, along with other evidence, and he found Poyser to be credible.
“I’ve seen many witnesses testify and no witness is perfect but I believe Winston Poyser was telling the truth,” Shankaran said. “This wasn’t just a case of a single witness coming forward and pointing the finger.”
