Gang member gets life for 2008 murder of Darnell Grant
Posted May 17, 2012 12:01 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A member of Toronto gang Doomstown Crips, who sprayed bullets into a crowd of strangers killing a father of six, got an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 18 years.
Corey Smelie, 23, was sentenced Thursday by Justice Robert Clark for the 2008 driveby shooting that killed Darnell Grant, 31. The shooting happened on Driftwood Court, near Jane and Finch, on Sept. 22, 2008. Smelie was found guilty of second-degree murder in March.
His co-accused, Jermaine Gager, 21, was convicted of first-degree murder and received a life sentence with no parole for 25 years.
In Smelie’s case, the Crown had asked for life with no parole for 22 years, while the defence asked for 12 to 14 years.
During the trial, Crown lawyer Rick Nathanson called it an act of terrorism when describing the outrageous actions of three men who shot into a group of innocent strangers merely because they lived within the territory of a rival gang.
“They wanted to kill as many people as possible,” when they jumped out of a stolen van and emptied their guns into a group of people talking on the street, he said.
One of Grant’s children wrote in her victim impact statement, “I wonder why anyone would just shoot someone? Did they care if they had children? I doubt it…. Now he won’t be here to brag about me.”
