Brandon Musgrave murder trial

The Brandon Musgrave murder trial will take a break until the New Year. It’s the second trial in which Tyrone Chambers and Joshua Warner are accused of killing the 18-year-old, who was fatally shot at a Dundurn street student party in Hamilton in 2010.

The trial began October 23rd and the jury has heard all about the March 12, 2010 student party that ended with Brandon Musgrave shot dead and two others with gunshot injuries.

Joshua Warner and Tyrone Chambers both brought loaded guns to the party, which had been advertised on Facebook. At about 1am, Chambers got into an argument about the music being played and brought out a gun covered in a black sock, saying he could end the party right then. Witnesses saw Warner pull out his gun shortly after. Three shots were fired in the crowded kitchen, Brandon Musgrave was fatally hit in the head. Another man was shot in the chest and a third man in the arm.

The second degree murder conviction was quashed in June of 2016. The appeal court found that the original trial judge, James Ramsay, did not properly instruct the jury when it came to aiding and abetting and when it came to how to interpret post-offence conduct.

The accused fled the party and parted ways at a Go station. Chambers fled to Halifax and was arrested within a month. Warner went to Guyana and was arrested and brought back the following year. But the appeal court judges found they could have had reasons other than fleeing a murder charge. Both had firearms prohibitions for example and the jury should have been told that flight doesn’t necessarily indicate guilt.

The jury was given the option to keep going this week and hear closing arguments and instructions and start deliberating, but they wanted a guarantee that they’d be deliberating by Wednesday and Justice Toni Skarica said it wouldn’t be likely they’d be done until Friday, so that would mean deliberating possibly into Christmas. The court will reconvene January 3rd for closing arguments.