22 December 2009 No Comment

Himy Syed waits to light a candle for Jane Creba during a vigil he organized for victims of gun violence in Toronto, Monday January 2, 2006. Hundreds of people turned out for the vigil for Jane Creba, the 15-year-old girl gunned down in a brazen Boxing Day shootout on Toronto's Yonge Street.

By Anthony Reinhart
The Globe and Mail

Before he headed out to the Boxing Day sales on Yonge Street in 2005, Jeremiah Valentine ignored previous court orders and slipped a familiar item into his pocket: a fully loaded, snub-nosed .357 magnum revolver.

Because of that one decision, a 15-year-old girl named Jane Creba was killed, six more people were wounded and Canada’s largest city was plunged into a long bout of grief and rage over gun violence run amok.

On Monday, the 27-year-old Mr. Valentine stood in a downtown courtroom a scant six blocks from the scene of his crime and took responsibility for it. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Jane’s death and received an automatic sentence of life imprisonment. He can apply for parole in 12 years.

Asked by Mr. Justice John McMahon if he had anything else to say, Mr. Valentine replied, “No, your honour.”

Judge McMahon, however, had much to say about the “indiscriminate firing” that followed what court heard was a robbery attempt on Mr. Valentine as he shopped for shoes in a Foot Locker store. Two males approached him in the store, revealed handguns under their shirts and demanded the chain around his neck, defence lawyer Edward Sapiano said.

Mr. Valentine rebuffed them and the two went outside, where they waited and stared through the store window at him and his friend, Milan Mijatovic. Rather than wait them out in the safety of the store, the armed Mr. Valentine and his friend chose to go outside.

“As he left the store, Mr. Valentine held his gun in his hand, up his sleeve, so that only a part of the barrel could be seen,” Crown prosecutor Maurice Gillezeau read from a statement of facts agreed upon with Mr. Sapiano. Outside, a large group of men waited to the north of Foot Locker. Mr. Valentine recognized one and called him over to ask what was the problem.

“Are these your boys?” Mr. Valentine asked, “ ’cause these are my boys. And I have a .357.”

He waved his gun in the air, and when members of the other group drew their guns, Mr. Valentine fired on them. They returned fire, and within less than a minute, Jane, caught in the crossfire, lay dying from a single shot to the back. It had pierced her aorta.

As the young men all fled, Jane was rushed to a trauma room at St. Michael’s Hospital, where a blood-stained bullet fell to the floor from her gurney. Forensic tests were inconclusive, but suggested the slug “very likely” came from Mr. Valentine’s weapon, which was never recovered.

Judge McMahon said that while Mr. Valentine did not intend to kill Jane, his “callous disregard” in carrying a gun into a crowd of holiday shoppers snuffed out the life of a girl whose “only mistake was to believe she could go on a family shopping trip on Boxing Day” in safety. Her death, the judge said, “has irreparably damaged Ms. Creba’s family.”

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