Simeon Peter’s family believes he held on long enough to hear his mother’s voice in the hospital before he succumbed to injuries sustained in an execution-style shooting. “As soon as I entered and I held his hand and I called his name, that’s the time the doctors …,” said his mother, Marcelina Peter, becoming emotional as her voice trailed off. The Peter family has lived through an ordeal that most could not fathom; not just those who have never lost a loved one to a murder, but even those who have. Because unlike most murder cases, which lead to one trial and some form of justice being delivered, the Peters have had to sit in court and watch as the man accused of killing their son and brother stood trial once, then a second time, and now possibly a third time. The Crown has always alleged that Warren Nigel Abbey was a member of the Malvern Crew who mistakenly believed that Peter, 19, was a member of the rival Galloway Boys when he shot him multiple times on a Scarborough street in 2004 as Peter was making his way to a job interview. Abbey was acquitted at his first trial in 2007, but the Crown appealed, leading to a conviction at the second trial in 2011 and a sentence of life in prison. “The cold and callous nature of this killing cannot be overstated,” Superior Court Justice David McCombs said during the sentencing. But then Abbey’s lawyers appealed, and earlier this month, Ontario’s top court ordered a third trial, finding that the key part of the Crown’s evidence, an expert witness who testified on the significance of gang members with teardrop tattoos, contained “inaccuracies” and even “falsehoods.” The Crown had alleged Abbey got a teardrop tattooed under his right eye about four months after Peter’s death. Sociologist Mark Totten testified for the Crown at the second trial that the teardrop could have one of three meanings: the individual had l ...
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