GIST: "For 35 years, Timothy Rees has been trying to clear his name, insisting evidence of the real killer of 10-year-old Darla Thurrott was buried by Toronto Police — including an unmarked audio tape that lay at the bottom of a box at police headquarters.
And he’s urging the Court of Appeal to order an acquittal of his second-degree murder conviction and not a retrial.
“I did not harm Darla at all. I did not murder Darla,” Rees insisted in a statement read by his lawyer, James Lockyer. “I have carried the burden of being her killer for 35 years, and it is wrong. I want my self-respect back, and that is why I must seek to be acquitted of her murder.”
It was sheer luck that has led him to this chance at redemption.
In 2007, lawyer — now Justice — Heather Pringle took on Rees’s case on behalf of what’s now known as Innocence Canada and her request for outstanding disclosure led to the discovery of two bankers’ boxes of memo books and 58 cassette tapes belonging to one of the investigators, now-retired superintendent Wayne Cotgreave.
Lockyer said Det. Keith Bradshaw diligently listened to the tapes and discovered an unmarked and undated interview with a prime suspect never disclosed to the defence: James Raymer. Cotgreave would later maintain he knew nothing about the tape or the interview.
Born with cerebral palsy, Raymer had a weak right arm and walked with a limp. A cook at Taco Bell, he’d inherited the Etobicoke house at 15 Smithfield Dr. from his late parents — his father, Eugene, was an OPP superintendent – and in September 1987, he’d taken in Darla’s family as boarders.
At 10:15 a.m. on March 17, 1989, Darla’s mom found her stiff body lying in her bed facing the wall, dried vomit on her pillow. A
There were five adults In the house that night — Raymer, who had the bedroom across the hall from Darla, a basement tenant, her parents, and their friend Rees, who’d stayed over upstairs after a night of partying.
Raymer, who died in 1999, should have certainly aroused suspicion: he didn’t go to work as usual that morning, there was child-sized costume jewellery in his room as well as packages of women’s panty house and Sunshine Boy pictures.
And then there was the tape.
Raymer said he’d kissed Darla good night on the cheek and “that was it,” but then backtracked, claiming he’d kissed the girl on previous evenings, but not that night.
But he did admit seeing her after midnight when both headed to the bathroom. As well as possibly being the last person to see Darla, Raymer claimed the child seduced him, and they’d had sexual “fun” in the past.
“You touched Darla and got her excited and, and you got all excited and everything. Right?” the officer asked on the tape.
“Yeah,” Raymer agreed.
That explosive tape never saw the light of day. Also buried was a call from a former boarder who described Raymer as violent with a prurient interest in underage boys, as well as other witness statements suggesting he was the killer.
It was all supressed by the police, Lockyer charged, so as not to taint what he called the “false” confession they’d elicited from Rees.
He’d been on an alcohol and crack binge and had just attemped suicide with carpet cleaner when he was arrested for the aggravated assault of his brother. At the station, officers lied and told Rees that all the forensics pointed to him as Darla’s killer.
Rees was a victim of police tunnel vision, lawyer Jerome Kennedy said. They’d never even bothered to take samples from Raymer.
Rees allegedly told police he’d gone into her room to talk. “And then I guess it went through my head that I should take her away from all the bullsh– she was going through. I choked her,” the confession said. “Then I more or less sat there and told her nobody would hurt her anymore.”
They just badgered him until he signed what they wanted, Lockyer told the court, and Rees has maintained for more than three decades that he never killed Darla.
“This man has waited 35 years — 23 years in jail, 12 years on parole. You can understand why he wants vindication.”
The Crown will plead its case on Wednesday."
The entire commentary can be read at:
https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/mandel-should-buried-tape-lead-to-acquittal-for-convicted-child-killerPUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
