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Two Toronto men have been found not guilty of second-degree murder in the slaying of an 11-year-old boy.
Akiel Eubank and Gregory Sappleton, both 24, were charged with engaging in a gunfight in the Jane Street and Sheppard Avenue West area on July 22, 2007, during which a stray bullet killed Ephraim Brown.
The Crown's only eyewitness, Brown's cousin Kishauna Thomas, testified she saw the two accused, who she said are from rival gangs, shooting at one another.
Defence lawyers, however, attacked her credibility throughout the trial.
The shooting took place at Thomas's 18th birthday party in the backyard of a townhouse complex. Now 21, Thomas testified that bullets were still flying through the air when she and her mother pulled the fatally wounded 11-year-old, who had been shot in the throat, indoors.
Thomas said Sappleton — who she said went by the nickname "Redz" — was a member of the Baghdad Crew. Members of that gang wear red, she said, and are associated with a bigger gang, the Bloods. The Crown alleges Eubank was a member of the Five Point Generalz.
The jury evidently rejected her testimony.
Justice Brian Trafford told the jury before it began deliberations on Friday to be cautious with Thomas's testimony. "You must scrutinize the testimony of Kishauna Thomas … with the greatest of care," he said.
The killing came just two months after Grade 9 student Jordan Manners, 15, was shot to death at his high school in the same region of the city.
It prompted reaction from the province, with Ontario's attorney general using the death to renew calls for a federal ban on handguns.
After the verdict was read, some members of the Brown family ran from the courtroom sobbing uncontrollably.
The two accused were allowed to leave, free men.
Outside the court the two men said they have "always been friends" and denied any role in the killing.
Sappleton's lawyer, Edward Sapiano, said his client has been "waiting 3½ years to prove the wrong two men were arrested."
For his part Sappleton would only say the verdict was "a blessing."
For Eubank it means going home to his infant son. "My son is 3½. I left him when he was four months. And now I finally get a chance to be with my son and that's all that matters."
The Brown family, angry and upset, railed against the verdict.
"The system doesn't work," said Molly Brown, Ephraim's aunt.