Shamoi Palmer and Egypt Morgan sat two prisoner’s boxes apart with plexiglass between them on the opening day of their first-degree murder trial. The former on-and-off-again couple were arrested in 2018 after a drive-by shooting that claimed the life of 32-year-old Jermaine Titus, who the jury has heard was an innocent man just driving down Weston Road with a friend after dropping the friend’s eight-year-old stepson off at summer camp.
“Jermaine Titus was driving down the road with his friend to get a haircut when a bullet shattered his window, piercing his skull and brain, killing him instantly. The bullet was meant for someone else — a man nicknamed ‘Skeeno,'” Crown prosecutor Alice Bradstreet told the jury.
Bradstreet told jurors that Morgan, who lived at 55 Emmett Ave., left for work at the Rogers Centre on the morning of Aug. 22, 2018 and walked into the 7/11 store at Jane Street and Weston Road and texted Palmer that “Skeeno is in 711!”.
Prosecutors allege that Morgan called him and video surveillance captured a man alleged to be Palmer exiting her apartment building where he often stayed, before running towards the parking lot. A silver Mazda SUV could be seen on video surveillance speeding down the street towards Jane Street and Weston Road.
At the same time, Morgan kept Palmer aware of Skeeno’s whereabouts. She texted what he was wearing and within two minutes, a silver Mazda SUV arrived at the intersection of Jane and Weston. Video surveillance showed the SUV pass by Skeeno before making a U-turn. Skeeno ducked into an alley.
Bradstreet explained that as the Mazda lined up with Skeeno, and Titus’s Lexus drove between them, video surveillance will show a firearm seen coming from the driver’s side of the Mazda, pointed directly at Skeeno across three lanes of traffic, before three shots were fired and Titus’s vehicle came to a stop.
Bradstreet pointed at Palmer sitting in the prisoner’s box wearing a turtleneck and blazer, glasses on his face, and told the jury that the Crown alleges that he pulled the trigger. She then pointed at Morgan and said, “and this woman right here, using her thumbs on a cellphone, put that plan into motion.”
The jury was told that after the shooting, Palmer called Morgan twice, and continued to keep in touch via text messages. Cellphone data later revealed that Palmer read tweets and visited websites to read about Titus’s murder.
Investigators had tracked the licence plate of the Mazda SUV to a rental agency, and Palmer was seen on surveillance video days earlier present at the time the vehicle was rented. The credit card on the contract was in the name of Egypt Morgan.
Palmer returned the Mazda SUV to the rental agency shortly after the shooting.
The following day, the homicide squad appealed to the media and put out a picture of Palmer, identifying him as a suspect in the murder. As he was leaving Morgan’s apartment in an Uber, police were watching him. A short time later, investigators pulled over the Uber and arrested Palmer.
Bradstreet told the jury that after executing a search warrant on Morgan’s apartment, they found a loaded handgun with a laser scope attached under the couch in the living room. The gun was later tested and it was determined it was a match to a shell casing found at the crime scene and a shell casing found in the windshield well of the returned Mazda.
The Crown said DNA found on the firearm and magazine had similarities to the DNA of Palmer and Morgan and Palmer’s DNA was also likely found on the steering wheel.
After his arrest, clothing it’s believed Palmer was wearing on the day of the shooting had gunshot residue on it. A rental contract for the Mazda used in the shooting of Titus was also found in the pocket of Palmer’s shorts.
“Shamoi Palmer and Egypt Morgan, acting together, murdered Jermaine Titus,” said Bradstreet.
Outside court, Titus’s uncles spoke of a quiet man who was very hardworking, honourable, respectable and the father to a little boy.
“It’s a loss that collectively we still haven’t come to grips with,” said Dennis Brown. “It just shows the callousness and the depravity of what human beings are capable of,” he said, calling the murder shocking and heartless.
Another uncle, Deval Harrison, said that Titus’s son, who is now nine years old, is struggling with the murder of his father.
“It’s tough to explain to him why his father is not around. It’s the way in which it was done,” said Harrison.
The trial continues.