Ariyo Fakomi had to shelve his dream of becoming a chef during the two years he spent in prison awaiting trial on charges of assaulting and robbing a teenager of his 12 diamond-encrusted gold teeth.
Yesterday, he was ready to pursue his goal after a judge found him not guilty of assaulting 17-year-old Jordan Dyksinski, who is now in a wheelchair.
Minutes after the ruling came down in Ontario Superior Court, the 20-year-old Mr. Fakomi said he wanted to study cooking at George Brown College. "I feel wonderful," he said in an interview. "I thank God for everything."
His friend and co-accused Jamal Taylor, however, was taken away in handcuffs after Madam Justice Harriet Sachs convicted him of aggravated assault and robbery. She acquitted him on the more serious charge of attempted murder, saying Crown attorney Laura Bird had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Taylor, also 20, was the person who shot Mr. Dyksinski. He is to be sentenced on Nov. 24.
Mr. Taylor's lawyer, John Struthers, said the ruling is being reviewed for a possible appeal.
Mr. Dyksinski, now 19, was not in court for the judgment. His mother, Andrea, who would not give her surname, said she was upset at the acquittal. "My son's serving a life sentence," she commented, referring to his reliance on a wheelchair.
Her son was shot outside a home in the Lawrence Avenue and Weston Road area where he attended a party in September of 2002. Mr. Dyksinski testified at the trial that a man asked to see the two strips of gold teeth he wore over his own, much like a denture. He refused and the man left.
But a short time later, the same man, this time with a group of friends, approached him again and asked him to accompany them to the back of the house. Again, Mr. Dyksinski declined. A struggle ensued, during which the man fired several shots.
Mr. Dyksinski ran to his car but was shot in the back. Falling to the ground, he took out the $1,000 worth of mouth hardware and handed it to the gunman, who also sported two gold teeth.
The mood in the courtroom was sombre as family and friends of Mr. Taylor and Mr. Dyksinski heard the judge's ruling. The only exception was Mr. Fakomi and his mother, who did not want her name used. The two smiled and hugged each other as he was released. She then embraced and thanked her son's lawyer, Allan Lobel.
Wiping at tears, she said "it's been two years of hell" since her son's arrest.
Judge Sachs accepted the defence argument that Mr. Fakomi was at the party but took no part in the shooting. The Crown had only two pieces of evidence against him. His handprint was on Mr. Dyksinski's car and police found half of the gold teeth on him when he was arrested several weeks after the shooting.
Judge Sachs found the evidence against Mr. Taylor more compelling. Mr. Dyksinski initially identified Mr. Taylor as looking like the gunman. The fact that he could not pick out Mr. Taylor as the person who shot him when asked to at the trial did not offset his initial identification, the judge said.
She found Mr. Taylor's account of being shot in his index finger by someone who robbed him shortly before the incident involving Mr. Dyksinski to be an "improbable story." She accepted expert testimony that the injury was in keeping with a bullet wound received during a struggle.
She concluded that Mr. Taylor was one of a group that assaulted and robbed Mr. Dyksinski.