MANDEL: Two guilty in Jane Creba slaying convicted of other offences, another faces murder charge

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On that tragic Boxing Day almost 20 years ago, 41 bullet fragments, eight shell casings and two bullets lay scattered along the Yonge St. sidewalk where a gun battle suddenly erupted between two rival groups on the busiest shopping day of the year.

Toronto teen Jane Creba was caught in the crossfire of their senseless gang shootout, forever frozen at 15 in that haunting black and white portrait we all came to know so well, a haunting symbol of the innocence our city lost the day she went shopping and never came home.

But what an insult it is to her memory that two decades on, three of the four men convicted in her death were freed by the Parole Board — with all three later rearrested; the most recent being last week’s shocking arrest of Jeremiah Valentine for allegedly committing yet another murder.

And just seven months after he was granted full parole.

While it was never determined who fired the fatal shot, the Crown alleged the Riverdale Collegiate student was killed by a .357 Magnum bullet fired by the Magnum-toting Valentine. In 2009, the then 27-year-old pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years.

That was hardly a life sentence. Valentine was first freed on day parole in November 2023 and granted full parole this past January — despite his last psychological assessment in 2021, and validated in 2023, showing there was a 76% chance of his violent reoffending within five years if he were released.

Still, the parole board rolled the dice and figured he no longer posed an “undue risk” to the community. If the allegations now against him are proven true, the 33-year-old victim he’s alleged to have gunned down would most certainly have disagreed.

Two of Valentine’s co-accused have also had further run-ins with the law.

Louis Woodcock and Tyshaun Barnett — both under court orders not to possess weapons — came downtown that day packing loaded handguns and opened fire outside the Foot Locker in a brazen gun battle with Valentine. Barnett fired one shot from a .25-calibre handgun before it jammed while at least seven slugs came from Woodcock’s 9-mm semi-automatic Ruger.

A jury acquitted them of second-degree murder, but convicted them of manslaughter. The Crown sought a prison term of 15 years, but Justice Gladys Pardu took their age — both were 18 at the time — and their expressions of regret into account.

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“The possibility that they can turn around their lives and become productive law-abiding members of the community cannot be entirely discounted,” she said.

So she sentenced each to 12 years — but thanks to the two-for-one credit for their four years of pre-sentence custody, they had less than four years remaining and were soon set free.

The judge’s optimism proved sadly misplaced.

In 2017, with just one day remaining on his parole, Woodcock was arrested in Kingston and charged with drug offences. In 2018, he was convicted of having illegal possession of 30 grams of marijuana and sentenced to time served. Last year, it was Toronto Police who arrested the 36-year-old, this time on numerous firearm and drug-related charges which are still pending.

Barnett fared no better.

In 2020, he was swept up in a Toronto Police gang investigation of the Eglinton West Crips and charged with drug offences. In July 2022, he pleaded guilty to three drug-related charges and was sentenced to three years.

Last year, despite his lifetime weapons ban, Barnett, 37, was sentenced to another 11 years in prison for firing four shots into a man’s legs in Ottawa in what the Crown described as a “revenge” shooting in April 2022.

Only Jorrell Simpson-Rowe is still safely behind bars — despite his many attempts at parole.

Simpson-Rowe was six weeks shy of his 18th birthday when he fired a 9-mm handgun several times during the shootout and wounded three people. Convicted of second-degree murder, he was sentenced as an adult to life in prison with no chance of parole for seven years.

There was no sign of any remorse. When told the shootout caused Creba’s death, he responded, “How do they know she wouldn’t have been hit by a car or something?“

In 2015, the Parole Board denied his attempt at day parole and/or full parole, finding he resorted to using violence to get what he wants. 

In 2020 and again last year, they turned him down, saying he continues to be at a high risk of violent recidivism.

mmandel@postmedia.com