PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: "Sheriffe, a former soccer star who was about to begin a carpentry apprenticeship, testified at the original trial that he was driving people home after a night out in 2009 when Asfaha asked him to pull over and stop around the corner from a house on Mount Olive Drive in northwest Etobicoke. His lawyer, Samara Secter, is applying to the federal justice department for a review of his case, claiming there was a miscarriage of justice in the trial."
PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Sheriffe was 19 at the time of the shooting, Asfaha was 24. At the trial, Sheriffe said he barely knew Asfaha, while Asfaha identified Sheriffe and several others as members of the “Hustle Squad,” which he and a junior police officer, quoting the words of two confidential sources, said was a subgroup of the Jamestown Crips street gang. (As the 2012 trial heard, the “Hustle Squad” was never heard of before the trial, and Sheriffe’s lawyers point out it has never been heard of since. Sheriffe maintains it was the name of his pickup basketball team."
STORY: "16 years later, this Toronto gunman has confessed his story was a ‘lie.’ What does it mean for the man who says he was wrongfully convicted?," by Chief Investigative Reporter Kevin Donovan, published by The Toronto Star on June 5, 2026. (Kevin Donovan is the Toronto Star’s Chief Investigative Reporter. His focus is on journalism that exposes wrongdoing and effects change. Over more than three decades he has reported on the activities of charities, government, police, business among other institutions. Donovan also reported from the battlefields in the Gulf War and the war in Afghanistan following 9/11. He has won three National Newspaper Awards, two Governor General’s Michener Awards, the Canadian Journalism Foundation award and three Canadian Association of Journalists Awards. As the Star’s editor of investigations for many years, Donovan led many award-winning projects for the paper. He is the author of several books, including “Secret Life: The Jian Ghomeshi Investigation” and the “Dead Times” (a fiction novel).)
SUB-HEADING: "Awet Asfaha has made the stunning admission as part of a bid for early parole in what is known as a “faint hope” hearing."
GIST: "One of two men convicted of first-degree murder in the death of a Toronto furniture maker 16 years ago has changed his story in a reversal that could have major consequences for Christopher Sheriffe — the co-accused man who continues to argue his conviction was a “miscarriage of justice.”
Awet Asfaha had long maintained his innocence in the shooting of Bishen Golaub outside a neighbourhood barbecue on Mount Olive Drive in Etobicoke on a sweltering afternoon in August 2009.
In a profanity-laced police interview and at trial, he claimed he knew nothing about the murder, and a mysterious man on the street was the real shooter.
On Thursday, court heard he has now confessed to the shooting, and both earlier stories were “a lie.”
Asfaha made the stunning admission as part of a bid for early parole in what is known as a “faint hope” hearing. Taking accountability for a crime is one of the factors considered in similar hearings.
“Awet Asfaha shot and killed Bishen Golaub,” his lawyer, Breana Vandebeek, told court on Thursday, in advance of Asfaha’s own testimony in the coming days.
A Superior Court jury has been told that Asfaha — who is in a minimum security facility on the ocean on Vancouver Island and is allowed to have a cat — is hoping to be paroled to a halfway house in Victoria where he intends to work toward his “Red Seal certification in the culinary arts” in the hope of one day running a food cart.
Meanwhile, Sheriffe is in a medium security section of Collins Bay Institution in the Kingston area.
He was convicted as the “getaway driver” at the 2012 trial, maintains his innocence and has told the Star he cannot take accountability for something he didn’t do.
Sheriffe, a former soccer star who was about to begin a carpentry apprenticeship, testified at the original trial that he was driving people home after a night out in 2009 when Asfaha asked him to pull over and stop around the corner from a house on Mount Olive Drive in northwest Etobicoke.
His lawyer, Samara Secter, is applying to the federal justice department for a review of his case, claiming there was a miscarriage of justice in the trial.
Sheriffe was 19 at the time of the shooting, Asfaha was 24. At the trial, Sheriffe said he barely knew Asfaha, while Asfaha identified Sheriffe and several others as members of the “Hustle Squad,” which he and a junior police officer, quoting the words of two confidential sources, said was a subgroup of the Jamestown Crips street gang.
(As the 2012 trial heard, the “Hustle Squad” was never heard of before the trial, and Sheriffe’s lawyers point out it has never been heard of since. Sheriffe maintains it was the name of his pickup basketball team.)
Asfaha’s new story is a major development in the long-running case. Court heard Asfaha, who is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years, is asking the jury to recommend that he be allowed to apply now, with roughly eight years before he would normally be allowed to seek parole, and five years before he could apply for day parole.
Justice Breese Davies of the Superior Court of Justice earlier determined Asfaha’s case for early parole should proceed to a jury, and a panel of 12 members was selected this week.
That jury is now hearing evidence, including details of Asfaha’s conduct in prison.
It will be up to them to decide if he can make an early application to the Parole Board of Canada, which would still have to determine if he should be released and under what conditions.
‘He would be a grandfather now’
Crown attorney Katherine Rogozinski is opposing Asfaha’s bid. In her opening address, Rogozinski asked them to think of the victim, a 34-year-old furniture maker who was a father of four and stepfather of one. “He would be a grandfather now,” Rogozinski said.
Golaub’s widow is attending the hearing and has struggled several times on the first day to remain composed.
Also present are members of Asfaha’s family; court heard he lied to them for years, saying he was innocent.
Asfaha, in the prisoners’ dock wearing a white collar shirt and an oatmeal-coloured sweater, sat unmoving during the first day of the hearing, staring straight ahead.
While it will be a week before the jury hears from Asfaha directly, his lawyer, Vandebeek, described his anticipated evidence in her opening address.
She set the stage by describing an ongoing gang feud “characterized by frequent, alternating shootings” in the area where Golaub was killed. In a statement agreed to with the crown, Vandebeek told the jury that her client had a criminal record for trafficking and possessing cocaine and his apartment was a hangout for members of the Jamestown Crips.
On the day of the murder, Vandebeek said Asfaha and Sheriffe had been returning from a night out and were dropping off two women at an apartment.
Vandebeek told court that there were people associated with the Jamestown Crips who were with them earlier.
After dropping off the two young women at 1:20 p.m., Vandebeek said Asfaha and Sheriffe (Sheriffe was driving his mother’s car) turned down Mount Olive Drive (off Kipling Avenue north of the 401).
She said they passed Golaub, who court heard had no gang affiliations and was simply waiting outside a barbecue for food.
He was wearing a red golf shirt, and there was a suggestion at the 2012 trial that his shirt colour attracted attention as the rival “Bloods” wore red, while the Jamestown “Crips” were blue.
“Mr. Golaub stood with his back to Mount Olive Drive as he spoke to (the host of the barbecue),” Vandebeek told the jury. She said that Asfaha, who had been in the passenger seat of Sheriffe’s car and stopped on a side street, then walked up to Golaub carrying a gun and fired three shots.
Vandebeek, drawing on testimony from the original trial in 2012, said Golaub grabbed his chest, said he could not breathe, and fell to the sidewalk. One of the three bullets “grazed and opened his heart,” and he died en route to hospital.
‘He’s asking you guys for a second chance’
Given the two earlier stories Asfaha had told, Vandebeek acknowledged to the jury that they were lies.
At one point, court heard, Asfaha testified that the shooting (which he then denied knowledge of) was a “cowardly” act.
He also testified in 2012 that as he and Sheriffe sat in the car around the corner that day, a man with his hair in braids, whom he believed to be “the shooter,” showed up, got into the car with them and gave him a “cold look.”
“It is admitted that Mr. Asfaha’s testimony of what happened at his trial in relation to the shooting was false and, in fact, Mr. Asfaha was the person who shot Mr. Golaub,” Vandebeek told court Thursday.
Court also heard from a senior parole official from British Columbia, who has reviewed Asfaha’s case and spent three hours interviewing him.
Jordan Lonsdale, acting Parole Officer Supervisor, told court that Asfaha, who was born in Eritrea, described to him how he had suffered abuse from his father while growing up. Lonsdale said he found Asfaha “co-operative,” “respectful,” “transparent” and “genuine.”
Lonsdale said that Asfaha’s time has not been without bumps in the road. He has received prison discipline for several things over the years, including being found with a homemade weapon described by Lonsdale as made of plastic and “four inches long,” and for having a “modified” razor.
Lonsdale said there were other issues, including Asfaha’s suspected involvement with a prison staff member who was bringing in steroids and nicotine patches; and an “altercation” with another inmate over a Super Bowl bet in which Asfaha threw the first punch.
After an attack in his first year in prison, which left him with a large facial scar, Asfaha experienced post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and attempted to harm himself.
His lawyer, Vandebeek, said that despite these issues, her client has turned his life around and implored the jury to give a recommendation for early parole.
“He’s asking you guys for a second chance,” Asfaha’s lawyer said, addressing the jury.
Vandebeek said that Asfaha was bullied as a youth in school, stole a car and was sent by his mother to live with his father in Eritrea.
When Asfaha returned to Canada, he was again bullied while living in Jamestown, began selling drugs and started hanging out with members of the Jamestown Crips.
Vandebeek said he was never a member of the Crips.
She said her client is sorry for what he did and for the “cascading effect” on the Golaub family, his own family and the community.
Court heard that he has received support in prison from an Indigenous elder who has helped Asfaha deal with concerns over racism and colonialism.
The hearing will continue for at least a week and a half.
The case was the focus of a Toronto Star series and the podcast, Murder on Mount Olive."
The entire story can be read at:
