The man accused in the fatal Little Italy daytime shooting is stunned at the charges and has no idea why police suspect him of killing a man watching Euro Cup soccer earlier this week, his lawyer said on Friday.
"He is extremely upset. He is shocked and he is looking forward to having the case to move for as quickly as possible so he can prove his innocence," lawyer Christopher Avery told reporters outside a Toronto court.
Dean Wiwchar, 26, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and was remanded into custody on Friday.
Wiwchar was arrested without incident on Thursday afternoon in connection to the shooting death of John Raposo earlier this week.
Raposo, 35, was shot in the head Monday afternoon on the patio of the Sicilian Sidewalk Café as he, and many others, gathered to watch a Euro Cup soccer match between Italy and Ireland.
Another man suffered non-life-threatening injures in the crossfire.
Wiwchar's court appearance came at the same time as Raposo's funeral. Family and friends gathered at St. Mary's Church, near Bathurst and Adelaide Streets, to pay their final respects to the murdered man Friday morning.
Lawyer flags details
Avery said there were key discrepancies between his client and the suspect description released by police, claiming that his client is taller than the decribed six foot suspect and has dark, not blond, hair.
He said Wiwchar is from Stouffville, Ont., and not from B.C. as Toronto police have said.
He said Wiwchar has spent time recently in B.C. and has a girlfriend there. He was convicted of robbery in 2005, in York Region, and served some of his jail sentence in B.C.
Avery was unable to explain why some of his client's sentence was served in another province.
CTV Toronto's Tamara Cherry reports that between 2004 and 2005, Wiwchar faced more than 60 charges related to weapon possession and armed robberies and was convicted in a series for violent attacks and fabricating evidence.
He has never before faced a charge as serious as murder. His current charges have not been proven in a court of law.
Police arrested Wiwchar on Thursday, near Dundas Street and Parliament Street, just east of downtown Toronto.
Witnesses said they saw undercover officers swarm a van taxi around 2:30 p.m.
As many as 25 police officers, many in unmarked vehicles, gathered around the taxi and pulled out a tall, young, white man who was wearing a soccer jersey.
Wiwchar allegedly had identification under a different name when he was arrested, homicide Det. Terry Browne said on Thursday.
Employees at the Aurora Retirement Centre confirmed that a taxi arrived to pick up a man named Dean Wiwchar shortly before police made their arrest.
Avery said Wiwchar was visiting his grandmother at the retirement home before he was arrested.
Wiwchar is expected to return to court on July 27.
