Manners trial continues, teachers testify in student’s murder

A gym teacher found Jordan Manners lying on the floor with a small hole the middle of his chest and losing consciousness, according to testimony presented during day two of Manners’ murder trial.

Manners, 15, was killed on May 23, 2007 inside C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute. The accused, J.W. and C.D., were 17 years old at the time of the crime and cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. They have both pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

Two gym teachers and a police identification officer testified Tuesday. According to the teachers, both J.W. and C.D. were at the school that day.

Tracey Galbraith, a gym teacher at C.W. Jefferys, testified she saw Manners just moments before he was shot. Galbraith said he was with some female students who were also in Grade 9 and she told them all to go back to class.

Galbraith said she saw C.D. at the school but wasn’t sure if he was a student, adding he may have been expelled. It turns out, the jury was told, C.D. was no longer a student. Galbraith testified C.D. was with two or three other young black males, all of whom were wearing the same hat.

A second gym teacher, Genadi Meilikhan, then took the stand. He said he found Manners lying on his back and breathing heavily. At first, he didn’t know Manners had been shot.

“No one could understand what was going on,” Meilikhan said. He couldn’t unzip Manners’ jacket, so they cut it off.

“I saw small hole almost in the middle of his chest,” about the size of his baby finger, Meilikhan testified.

“The hole was so small and so round,” he added, but there was no blood.

Meilikhan said Manners was losing consciousness. They were quickly surrounded by a large group of people, including students and J.W.  Meilikhan says J.W. was making phone calls and appeared frantic.

Sgt. Paul White told the court he saw photos from Manners’ cell phone, including a box of ammunition and a poster for a movie called Killa Season.

When he was shot, the officer said, Manners was wearing a chain with a cross on it, and carrying $90 in cash and a Walkman. These items were shown to the jury.

The defence team for J.W. and C.D. said two empty vodka bottles found in the school’s washroom.

Manners was the first person to ever be killed inside a Toronto school. After his death, police officers – known as school resource officers, or SROs – began patrolling schools in both the Toronto District School Board and the Toronto District Catholic School Board.

The TDSB appointed Julian Falconer, a well-known human rights lawyer, to chair a safety advisory panel for the board. The SROs were just one of his recommendations, which also included a student safety hotline. The 1,000-page report also found that sexual harassment is occurring at “alarming rates,” and is largely unreported.

Jordan Manners Case Timeline

 

With files from Marianne Boucher.

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