A Toronto woman on trial for the first-degree murder of 20-year-old Jai Parker-Ford, also known by his rap name S.K., allegedly told an undercover officer who was wearing a wire how she shot Parker-Ford in the back of the head.
In his opening address to the jury, assistant Crown attorney Rob Fried said that three months after Parker-Ford was fatally shot inside the apartment building where he lived with his family on Dec. 16, 2022, on Lawrence Avenue East and Orton Park Road, an undercover officer known as “T.J.” befriended 18-year-old Brianna Warner.
Fried said T.J. and Warner shared details about their lives and carried on communications for several weeks.
“Of course, T.J. made sure that the accused did not know she was in fact a police officer,” Fried explained.
In March 2023, judicial authorization was granted to provide T.J. with a secret recording device, allowing her to record conversations with the accused without her knowing.
“On April 6, 2023, while in the car with the accused and the accused’s mother, T.J.’s hidden recording device captured an argument between the accused and her mom. During this argument, which you will hear, the accused told her mother that she had shot someone in the head,” said Fried.
A recording capturing the argument was played.
Fried said the following day, on April 7, 2023, T.J., still carrying the covert recording device, went to the home of the accused near Lawrence Avenue and Markham Road. He said while the two chatted in her bedroom, Warner told T.J. details about shooting Parker-Ford, including the when, where, how and why.
“You will hear that recording too,” said Fried. “She also told T.J. she wrote a rap about it that she called ‘Brain Dead.'”
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Fried explained that because T.J. was undercover, she couldn’t arrest Warner then and there.
Instead, the following day, other police officers attended the home of the accused with a search warrant. The Crown said in one bedroom, officers found Warner’s passport and other documentation in her name. They also located a pair of black polo pants with a scattered white polo design.
In that same bedroom, officers found writings.
The Crown said that these writings, which will be shown to the jury, will provide some more details about the killing of Parker-Ford.
“One of those writings was the rap entitled ‘Brain Dead,'” Fried said.
Warner, now 21, sat in the courtroom with her back to the gallery, where Parker-Ford’s mother and family listened closely. She has pleaded not guilty.
Fried explained that evidence will show in the hours before the shooting, Parker-Ford was communicating on Snapchat with another individual.
A cellphone was found lying in the 14th-floor hallway outside the victim’s apartment, where he was found.
Fried said the phone was analyzed, and an investigator who examined the phone is expected to testify that the two were chatting about meeting up that night at Parker-Ford’s home.
“Shortly before being shot, the records show a call placed by the other individuals to Jai’s phone. You will see all these records,” said Fried. “You will see that the Snapchat account that was communicating with Jai before being shot was registered to someone in the name of Bri23x, and after Jai was shot, this Snapchat account used an IP address located at Brianna Warner’s home address.”
The Crown prosecutor told jurors that surveillance footage from the night of the shooting in Parker-Ford’s building showed someone wearing a light-coloured jacket, dark pants with white spots and white shoes walking around the building around 4 a.m.
Styles Parker, Parker-Ford’s older brother, the first witness for the Crown, testified about how he heard a bang around 4:40 a.m. on Dec. 16, 2022, and didn’t think anything of it.
Parker said he thought he had heard his brother making some noises in the hallway and opened the apartment door to find him on the floor bleeding. He said he then called 911.
During cross-examination, defence lawyer Katie Scott asked Parker if he had seen posts on Reddit about his brother’s death.
“People were treating your brother’s death as a joke?” suggested Scott. “Correct,” Parker replied.
Parker agreed with Scott, who suggested his brother was a good rapper with a lot of followers. Parker telling court he went by the name “Aveboy SK” or “S.K.”
Scott asked what his rap name S.K. stood for.
“Initials for swag kid,” Parker replied.
“What he portrayed in his music was not who he was?” Scott asked. “He rapped about guns, drugs, large sums of money, death, murder?” Scott added.
Parker agreed that what he rapped about was only a persona in his rap career. “It was because he wanted to sell more records,” said Parker.
The trial continues.
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