A jury has begun deliberations in the second-degree murder trial of J.S.R for the Boxing Day 2005 killing of teenager Jane Creba.
The jury ended its work for the day at about 7 p.m. on Thursday.
The 20-year-old suspect, who cannot be fully named because he was a youth at the time of the incident, had pleaded not guilty to one charge of second-degree murder, six counts of aggravated assault and weapons charges.
Justice Ian Nordheimer of Ontario Superior Court finished his instructions to the six-man, six-woman jury at 11:30 a.m., having started them on Wednesday afternoon.
A key issue for the jury will be deciding if J.S.R. participated in the gun battle that left Creba dying on a Yonge Street sidewalk and six others wounded.
Eby said some observers considered the trial to be "sanitized," noting that Creba's sister Alison, who had been out shopping with Jane that day, only had a written admission added to the court record. The jury never heard about medical interventions carried out on the 15-year-old, or saw autopsy photos.
Much of that was deemed too prejudicial to J.S.R., he said.
Creba's family has avoided the trial and protected its privacy, Creba said.
J.S.R. isn't accused of firing the shot that killed Creba, but under advances in Canadian criminal law, he can be convicted if the Crown convinced the jury that he participated in a gun battle that led to someone's death.
Police arrested J.S.R. at the Castle Frank subway station about 40 minutes after the shooting stopped outside a Foot Locker just south of Elm Street. He was in possession of a 9mm Ruger semi-automatic handgun that has been forensically linked to the shooting scene.
With the jury retired to deliberate, CTV Toronto's Chris Eby said some details that couldn't be previously reported can now be revealed.
"This is the trial that almost didn't happen," he said. There was a dispute between the defence and Crown that almost resulted in a mistrial.
CTV Toronto was able to show some security video of J.S.R. with a group outside the Eaton Centre, including a sequence where he took a swing at one man, eventually taking a cellphone and about $400 in cash. Another confrontation inside the mall wasn't caught on camera.
After 5 p.m., J.S.R.'s group moved north to the Foot Locker. The group's third confrontation of the afternoon ended with a wild shootout -- and Creba dying on the pavement.
J.S.R. began co-operating almost immediately with detectives, Eby said. He gave up some names of others who would eventually be charged, "but those statements were never read in during this trial,' he said.
However, J.S.R. also lied to minimize his own involvement in the case, Eby said.
Crown, defence arguments
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Crown and defence made their final pitches to the jury.
"J.S.R. did not fire a gun on that day and did not murder Jane Creba," defence lawyer Gary Grill said Wednesday.
The Crown and defence have both agreed that Louis Woodcock had been in possession of the 9mm until the shooting began about 5:15 p.m.
Crown prosecutor Kerry Hughes argued on Tuesday that J.S.R. snatched the gun from Woodcock and fired the weapon. Grill argued that Woodcock handed the gun to J.S.R. after the shooting, and that J.S.R. was to dump the firearm.
Forensic experts testified they couldn't prove that J.S.R. fired a gun that night.
One of the Crown's best witnesses in terms of identifying J.S.R. as a shooter is David Tarnowski, who had been driving by when the shooting began.
"I hope you reject all of his evidence," Grill said.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Chris Eby
