Rage by Jerry Langton Read Free Book Online Page A

identified, returning home from a friend’s house shortly after Joanne arrived, ignored the police and emergency staff, lifted up the yellow police tape and walked up to the front door. When stopped by a police officer, the person in question calmly said, “Oh, it’s okay; I live here.”

    At about the same time that Joanne found out that her son was dead—and that it was probably her other son who had murdered him—the forensic examiner finished the preliminary report on Johnathon’s battered body. After all the blood and other tissue were cleaned off, the doctor counted no fewer than 71 entry wounds from a large, bladed weapon. Almost all of them were around the face or throat. One thrust—the one that probably killed him—cut so deep that it took a small chunk out of Johnathon’s backbone.

    After Tim gave his initial statements and told him he wouldn’t speak further without a lawyer present, Gray decided they needed to hear more from Ashley and her friends that night. He had his staff bring them all in. It was about 10:00 p.m. when they were finally all assembled. He sat them all in a conference room. Each girl had one or both of her parents with her. They all struck him as nice, polite, even upstanding young women. He was saddened that he had to break the news to them.
    “Some of what you heard on the tape today came true,” he told them. They all screamed and cried, some even fell to the floor. It was only then that Ashley learned Kevin’s little brother’s name was Johnathon and that he was 12, not five as she’d imagined, and that he was dead.

    Kevin and Pierre didn’t get very far that night. While the police searched the area, the boys hid in Taylor Creek Park, which starts just a few blocks north of 90 Dawes.
    Although it’s big, there’s not much to the park: just a creek, some marshes and a few trails cut into the lightly wooded ravine. Torontonians appreciate the city’s many wooded valleys for a chance to get closer to nature and away from the city’s hustle and bustle. But Taylor Creek isn’t one of Toronto’s more popular ravines; not many people go there and almost none ever show up at night. When there’s even a light dusting of snow on the ground—as there was November 25, 2003—it can be an eerily quiet place.
    Kevin and Pierre, familiar with the park from many smoking and drinking sessions, had no problem staying hidden from the few flashlight beams that penetrated the trees in search of them. They stayed the night there without incident.
    The following day, police officers were combing the neighborhood looking for the boys. A call came in from a person who recognized Kevin and Tim from images shown on TV that morning. Because both suspects were under 18, the police needed to get a judge’s permission to release their photos to the media. The witness had seen not only the boys, but also the blood on their clothes.
    Detective Constables Chris Sherk and Erin Bradshaw spotted Pierre at the corner of Coxwell Ave. and O’Connor Drive—a busy intersection about two-and-a-half miles away from 90 Dawes. Sherk later said he was surprised to see the most-wanted fugitives in the country “just strolling around” out in the open. Sherk stopped his car and apprehended Pierre. As he “took physical control” of the skinny 6-foot, maybe 140-pound boy, Sherk told him he was under arrest for murder. Pierre shrugged and indicated that he understood. Sherk was perplexed by the lack of concern the boy showed.
    As Sherk was taking Pierre down, Detective Sergeants John Rossano and Chris Haynes arrived from another direction after recognizing Kevin, who was on a different side of the same corner as Pierre. Rossano leapt from his car to arrest the big boy. And he too was surprised at how calm the murder suspect was. Kevin was not only giving no resistance, but he was showing no emotion. Rossano asked him: “Do you understand what this is about?” Kevin nodded and replied: “Yeah, the death