New & Notable: Sometimes it pays to tell your side of the story

Never get into a car with a stranger

Phung and Cong Tran were drug dealers.  They did a deal with Peter Tran, not related to Cong Tran, to buy two kilos of cocaine.  On the night of the deal, they picked him and the drugs up in Toronto and drove to Richmond Hill.  Peter Tran’s girlfriend, Emily Le, was along for the ride.  She should have stayed home; her boyfriend ended up dead and she was shot twice, but lived to tell the tale.

 

Cong Tran drove the foursome to Richmond Hill.  There was some talk in the car about the fact that his brother had been stabbed less than a week earlier.  Cong Tran missed the turn off to Ms. Le’s destination and the group ended up in a secluded area, unfamiliar to Peter Tran and Ms. Le.  Cong Tran, Peter Tran and Ms. Le got out of the car.  Phung took over the wheel and left, saying he had to go get something at a nearby uncle’s house.  He was gone for quite some time and Cong Tran eventually called him to question his whereabouts.

 

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Quotable Quote: No Need to Speculate...

Erland Wallace Mordue was convicted by a jury of first degree murder.  He appealed that conviction.  Mordue raised three grounds of appeal.  In dismissing the appeal the court offered the following quotable quote in relation to the Crown's case:
There was a strong case of planning and deliberation based on the appellant’s handwritten notes that refer to the murder and the suicide, and the fact that the appellant went to the victim’s home, cut the phone line, and waited for her while drinking beer and smoking for some period of time. As the appellant did not testify, there is no explanation that the jury could consider to put these circumstances in another light [para 3]; [emphasis added].
 
DG Mack