Where's The Gun?
Suspicion: Murder on Mount Olive
Toronto Star
4.6 • 591 Ratings
🗓️ 21 March 2025
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The forensics. How three bullets killed a man. The gun shot residue. Where it landed and where it didn't land gives homicide detectives some help, but not much. It turns out the case against Chris Sheriffe and Awet Asfaha is weak. Plus, the police screwed up the evidence collection. Things come to a head at the preliminary hearing, where a judge must decide if the charge of first degree murder – a planned killing – is the correct one. Plus, since Chris was just driving the car, did he really know what was about to happen? A judge said no and the case fell apart. Enter a new prosecutor. It was time for a full court press.
Audio sources: The science of gunshot residue analysis, The Royal Institution
Chief Investigative Reporter Kevin Donovan, who brought you the Billionaire Murders and Death in a Small Town, is back with Murder on Mount Olive, an investigation of a crime the courts closed the book on in 2012. On a sunny day in August, 2009, a man is shot three times at a barbecue. What happens that day will put a budding young soccer star turned carpenter behind bars for life for a crime he says he didn't commit. This is the story of Christopher Sheriffe and his fight for justice.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | My name is Christopher Hicks. I'm a criminal defense lawyer, and I've been doing this for several decades, |
| 0:06.2 | and I have an office on King Street East in downtown Toronto. |
| 0:09.3 | If there's a lawyer known for taking on tough cases, it's Christopher Hicks. |
| 0:14.5 | Years ago, he represented one of six men accused in the mass murder of eight members of the Bandito's motorcycle club, a judge called |
| 0:22.5 | their slaughter an execution assembly line. More recently, Hicks was the lawyer for an admitted |
| 0:29.4 | white nationalist caught in the act of driving his truck into and killing four members of a Muslim |
| 0:36.3 | family in what a judge ruled was an act of terrorism. |
| 0:40.3 | Like I said, tough cases. He lost both times. |
| 0:45.3 | Still, he says our system starts with the presumption of innocence. |
| 0:50.3 | That's where he comes in. |
| 0:52.3 | I view my role as doing everything I can to represent my client, |
| 0:58.5 | bringing all my experience and knowledge to that task. |
| 1:02.9 | I am not looking for justice. |
| 1:05.3 | I am looking for defenses. |
| 1:07.2 | I'm looking to represent someone. |
| 1:09.3 | Justice is something that is elusive at the best. |
| 1:12.6 | Hicks was hired by Chris Sheriff's family to defend him on first-degree murder charges. |
| 1:17.6 | Whether advocating for someone accused of a racist mass murder |
| 1:21.6 | or a young black man charged in an apparent gangland killing, |
| 1:25.6 | Hicks says it makes no difference. |
| 1:28.7 | No, I'm just looking for defenses. I'm not trying to figure out what really happened or who did |
| 1:32.7 | what to whom. I'll never know. No one's, you know, that's, sometimes the client has that secret, |
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