Gunman convicted in death of Toronto teen Jane Creba found guilty of shooting man in Ottawa (2024)

One of the men convicted in the infamous crossfire killing of Jane Creba, the 15-year-old Toronto girl who was killed on Boxing Day 2005, when gunfire erupted on Yonge Street, has been found guilty by an Ottawa jury for shooting a man in Vanier in 2022.

Tyshaun Barnett, 37, was found guilty last week of aggravated assault and firearms offences after firing four non-fatal shots into a man’s legs in an incident described by Crown prosecutors as a “revenge” shooting.

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Barnett was also found guilty of discharging a firearm with intent to wound, maim, disfigure or endanger life, possessing a restricted handgun and possessing the loaded gun while under a prior weapons prohibition order.

Barnett was 18 at the time of the 2005 shooting in which six other people were injured and Creba was killed in an exchange of gunfire between two rival gangs on the busy downtown Toronto street packed with holiday shoppers.

Creba had just returned a Christmas gift and was crossing the street when she was caught in the line of fire.

Barnett was one of four people found guilty in Creba’s death.

Jorrell-Simpson Rowe and Jeremiah Valentine were convicted of second-degree murder and were each handed life sentences. The fatal bullet that struck and killed Creba was fired from Valentine’s gun, investigators determined. Louis Woodco*ck and Barnett were convicted of manslaughter and each received a 12-year sentence in 2010.

They were also found guilty of four counts of aggravated assault related to the other innocent bystanders who had been struck by stray bullets.

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Woodco*ck and Barnett were given double credit for the time they served in pretrial custody and as of August 2010 had 43 months to serve on their sentences.

According to a transcript from his most recent trial, Barnett had been in Ottawa for about two years in 2022 and was living on the top floor of a three-storey low-rise apartment at 219 Granville St.

He got into a heated argument that erupted in gunfire in the early-morning hours of April 19, 2022, after his downstairs neighbours hosted a noisy group of friends following a night of drinking at a Montreal Road pub.

The group arrived at the Vanier apartment after closing time, and, when one friend was left “straggling” behind, he began shouting at his friends on the second floor to open the lobby’s locked front door.

Barnett yelled down at him, “Do you know what time it is?” according to the transcript.

The friend was “aggressive and extremely disrespectful” and started yelling back to Barnett, “antagonizing him,” and challenging Barnett to a confrontation.

“The argument escalated quickly,” Crown attorney Matthew Geigen-Miller told the jury at Barnett’s trial in March.

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The confrontation turned physical as Barnett and the friend engaged in the building’s back stairwell and gunshots rang out from the second-floor apartment.

Jason Urbina, a Toronto man who had been staying at the second-floor apartment, pulled out a handgun and fired two shots in Barnett’s direction, but missed.

Urbina was visiting Ottawa in April 2022 and had “taken advantage” of the second-floor tenant, who was struggling with addiction, according to the Crown’s outline of the case.

Everyone “scattered” when the two shots were fired and the shooting was reported to Ottawa police by a neighbour at 2:31 a.m.

Two officers were dispatched to the apartment and spoke to tenants, but, according to the Crown’s outline, no one still in the apartment “would admit that the shooting even happened.”

Later that morning, Barnett went downstairs and confronted his neighbour, angry about the noise and the confrontation with the party guest and angry about the near-miss shooting.

“He wanted to know where to find the person who just shot at him,” Geigen-Miller told the jury during his opening address. “Mr. Barnett found Jason Urbina and he got his revenge.”

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According to the Crown’s outline, the second-floor tenant and his girlfriend were “stressed out” from the shooting and left the apartment to buy crack from a friend. On the way there, they heard gunshots and witnessed Barnett running from an apartment at 184 Jeanne Mance St. around 6 a.m.

The neighbour and his girlfriend eventually agreed to speak with police. They left Ottawa a few days after the shooting and moved out of Ontario, the jury heard. The names of the two witnesses are redacted from transcripts as they fear reprisals.

Urbina had been sleeping inside the apartment on Jeanne Mance Street that morning when a gunman broke the front door off its hinges, stormed in and fired four shots into Urbina’s legs.

The shooter ran out the front door and left Urbina bleeding on the kitchen floor.

Barnett’s defence lawyer, Marco Sciarra, argued the eyewitnesses were not credible or reliable when the jury heard closing arguments on April 2.

Barnett elected not to testify and his defence elected to call no witnesses or evidence.

The Crown countered that the eyewitnesses were credible and reliable and that their identification of Barnett was corroborated by other evidence.

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Geigen-Miller pointed to Barnett’s “strong motive” for the crime, and investigators retrieved data from Barnett’s cellphone showing he was searching for the victim prior to the shooting.

Barnett was found guilty by a jury on all four counts on April 5.

The jury was never told about Barnett’s criminal history, and no details were mentioned of his involvement in the death of Creba, which is customary procedure to protect an accused person’s right to a fair jury trial.

The jury was likewise unaware that Barnett was already in custody for drug offences when he stood trial for the Vanier shooting.

Barnett was arrested by Toronto police in 2020 as part of a massive operation dubbed Project Sunder that rounded up 114 suspects with alleged ties to the Eglington West Crips, a violent west-end Toronto street gang.

Barnett was 33 at the time of that arrest and he faced an assortment of charges for possessing and trafficking cocaine, cannabis, fentanyl and Percocet.

He pleaded guilty to three drug-related charges in July 2022 and was sentenced to three years. He is currently serving that sentence.

His aggravated assault case is due back in court in early May, when a date for sentencing will be scheduled.

ahelmer@postmedia.com

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