Two Winnipeg gang members may yet pay a price for refusing to testify in a high-profile murder trial, effectively allowing the accused to walk free.
Police have charged 20-year-olds Gharib Abdullah and Corey Amyotte with obstructing justice and disobeying a court order following their refusal to take the stand to testify against Jeffrey Cansanay.
Their refusal to be sworn in to provide evidence in mid-April led to a collapse of the Crown's case against Cansanay, who had been charged in the shooting death of bystander Phil Haiart in the West End in October 2005.
"They're pretty significant charges, actually. It's not something we do every day here. It's very rare," police Sgt. Kelly Dennison said yesterday. The charges come after public outrage at the collapse of the case in a shooting that had caused a citywide uproar.
"Hopefully, people reading this now will go, 'Well, at least the justice system is not going to just roll over and take this.' "
The testimony of Abdullah and Amyotte would have been used by prosecutors to convict the man who had allegedly been aiming at them when Haiart became caught in the crossfire while walking near the intersection of Sargent Avenue and Maryland Street.
Serious
"These individuals obviously spoke to police early on in this investigation. They told police one thing, which furthered this investigation, and at a later date refused to testify to what they told us," Dennison said, adding any charge of obstruction is serious.
"A lot of times, we'll charge people with obstruct justice for saying they were sexually assaulted and they're full of crap ... and causing police to enter an investigation when there is no need for it."
However, an advocate for victims' rights charged that penalties for obstructing justice are often nowhere near as severe as they should be.
Floyd Wiebe, whose son T.J. was murdered in a separate incident in January 2003, is angry about a recent sentence "" three months behind bars served concurrently with an existing prison term "" imposed on a man for obstructing justice.
"The penalties that come down for obstructing justice do not have any effect," Wiebe said. "So why would these guys want to tell the truth or testify at a trial, when nothing will happen to them? It's only a slap on the wrist for obstructing justice and screwing up a case, and they all know it."
Abdullah and Amyotte were in custody at Headingley Correctional Centre on unrelated charges when city police arrested them on Friday.
"They were already in jail. We just went out there and rearrested them in Headingley," Dennison said, adding they will likely appear in court early this week. "Normal procedure would be to not even remove them from there."
ross.romaniuk@sunmedia.ca
