Mistrial declared in trial over shooting death at Ottawa barbecue

Tristan Campbell admitted at the start of trial that he shot and killed, but said it was after he was harassed and threatened.

In the end, after three and a half days of deliberations, an Ottawa jury remained hung and a mistrial was declared Friday in the murder prosecution against Tristan Campbell.

The jury couldn’t reach a verdict in connection with the May 27, 2018, killing of Abdifatah Osman, shot in the back of the head during a backyard barbecue.

The judge said the jurors did everything they could to reach a verdict, but remained deadlocked.

The jury also found Campbell, 39, not guilty of two counts of attempted murder from the shooting that left a woman, Briana Crispin, wounded in one arm.

It was a clear victory for defence lawyers Mark Ertel and Brendan Coffey, who asked the jury what ordinary black man wouldn’t lose self-control after a 24-hour campaign of harassment, threats, racist slurs and, finally, spit.

The defence theme at trial was that Campbell snapped after being dehumanized.

“This verdict is at least a partial vindication for Mr. Campbell, and the Crown’s theory was obviously not accepted by the jury on the two counts of attempted murder, which he was found not guilty of,” Ertel said. “Brendan Coffey and I will continue to fight for Mr. Campbell.”

The judge thanked the jurors for being attentive and hoped they could look back at their civic duty with pride.

The case against Campbell was not a Whodunnit? He admitted at the start of trial that he shot and killed after being harassed and threatened to his face and later over the backyard fence of a public-housing community.

Campbell, who was spared conviction on Friday, admitted he was the guy who sprayed the neighbourhood with bullets.

Some of the stray bullets penetrated a row house with children inside, hitting their toy box, their fish tank and a family sofa. None of the kids was hit.

In a remarkable twist at trial, a key Crown witness testified she had been pressured by the Crown to stick to the original statement she gave to detectives under threat of prosecution for lying to police if she changed it once sober and well-rested following three days of drinking and a night of trauma from the killing.

Jessica Walker testified she didn’t recall going to the Ottawa police station, let alone what she told a detective in the May 2018 videotaped statement.

In her videotaped statement to police, shown to the jury, Walker put all the blame on Campbell.

Days later, Walker testified, she tried to change her story because she wanted to tell the truth, but a police detective, after talking to a prosecutor, said it was impossible and would be bad for the case.

In his closing address to the jury, Coffey noted that the witness, under the threat of criminal prosecution, chose to come to court and “tell the truth.”

“That’s courage,” Coffey said.

The case would never have gone to trial if the Ottawa Crown Attorney’s office had accepted Campbell’s guilty plea to manslaughter. Instead, the Crown Attorney’s office rejected his guilty plea to the lesser charge and prosecuted him for murder, but lost that case Friday when the trial ended in a hung jury.

When Osman was killed in 2018, his family and friends spoke of his kindness and said he loved his two children.

“He always put other people first and always looked out for the people around him. He loved his kids the most and all kids in general,” longtime friend Mohamed Shire told this newspaper at the time.

“He did not deserve to go this way.”