More than seven years after 29-year-old Jonathan Zak was shot to death in a northeast London park, a jury on Friday returned guilty verdicts for the two men charged in connection to his death.
After deliberating for less than four hours, the jury found William Dwayne McDonald, 29, guilty of second-degree murder in the May 31, 2012 slaying. Thomas Lako, 28, was found guilty of manslaughter.
Both had pleaded not guilty to the charges. The trial began late last month.
Zak was fatally shot in the chest with a shotgun as he walked home from a friend’s house along a path through Northeast Park, near Boulee Street, around 2 a.m. May 31, 2012.
According to the London Free Press, the Crown alleged the pair decided to rob Zak after seeing him in the park, with Lako knocking the 29-year-old to the ground, and McDonald, using a gun Lako had given him, shooting him in the chest as he tried to get up.
Zak was not known to either Lako or McDonald.
It’s the second time this year McDonald has been convicted of second-degree murder. In June, a jury found him guilty in the Dec. 28, 2016 shooting death of Emmanuel Awai, 26, who died from two gunshots to the head.
McDonald was arrested in February 2017 in connection to the Awai case, and was charged that May in Zak’s death. Lako was charged a month later. Before his capture, McDonald had been on the run from police who had issued arrest warrants for him in relation to a non-fatal April 2016 shooting off Richmond Row.
Awai would have made an important witness in the Zak trial, according to a report in the London Free Press. Awai and McDonald had gotten into a confrontation just prior to Zak’s murder, with Awai taking away McDonald’s handgun, prompting McDonald to leave “in a huff” with Lako, the report said.
Awai called McDonald an “idiot” after learning he had shot Zak, according to the report.
Dates for Lako and McDonald’s sentencing hearings will be determined Nov. 12. McDonald’s murder convictions carry automatic life sentences. The hearing will determine his parole eligibility.
—With files from Matthew Trevithick
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