Murder committed 'for business reasons,' Crown says

The execution-style killing of Mauricio Castro was a business decision made by members of a large cocaine-trafficking network, Crown prosecutor Steve Sherriff said today in his closing arguments to the jury.
"Castro's murder was not personal," Sherriff told jurors today, saying they should find all three men on trial guilty of murder. "Castro had to go for business reasons."
Jaime Restrepo, 34, Michael Allen, 34, who Sherriff alleges was the shooter, and Zacky Deleon, 31, have pleaded not guilty to first degree murder in the killing 31-year-old Castro, gunned down while he sat in his idling Ford Escape in the Square One parking lot back on July 26, 2005.
"We say we have the mastermind (Restrepo), the killer (Allen) and the go-between (Deleon)," Sherriff said. "These men had a shared reason to commit the murder..."
The accused mens' defence lawyers didn't call any witnesses during the four-week trial.
Sherriff called several witnesses, including two men who, jurors heard, helped plan the execution-style killing at Square One.
It's the Crown's position that the three men on trial and two other GTA cocaine dealers planned and carried out the execution of Castro to move up the drug chain and avoid paying him a $1-million debt.
"The murder was done out of raw greed; get rid of the creditor; it was a shared activity," Sherriff said.
Jorge Acosta, who was granted immunity by the Crown in exchange for his testimony, told jurors he was the getaway driver on that fateful day and that it was indeed Allen who pulled the trigger, pumping four bullets into Castro while he was parked outside the Burger King.
Allen was the hired hitman who killed Castro in exchange for two kilograms of cocaine, Acosta said.
Sherriff told jurors there was a "mountain of evidence" that shows Deleon was "actively involved" in the murders, including recruiting Allen as the paid assassin.
Sherriff also said it was Deleon who delivered Allen's payment of two kilos seven hours after the murder.
Castro was lured to the mall by Jorge Restrepo, the accused man's younger brother, believing he was going to get $100,000 as part of the repayment of $1 million owed to him.
The younger Restrepo, 31, also testified as a Crown witness in this case.
Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and received a "lenient" nine-year sentence in exchange for his testimony, Sherriff said.
Jorge Restrepo admitted engineering Castro's murder on July 26, 2005 under his older brother's orders, and luring him to the mall. He testified that Castro's father Humberto was shot to death by different paid assassins, also on his brother's orders, four days later in Colombia.
Witnesses have testified throughout the trial that Castro headed a Colombian-based cocaine importing operation with his father Humberto, 71.
Because Canadian courts don't have jurisdiction over crimes in Colombia, none of the defendants are on trial for the father's murder, Sherriff said.
Defence lawyers for the three men accused the crown's key witnesses — Acosta and the younger Restrepo — of lying on the stand and suggested they masterminded the murder and then pinned it on the other men to avoid potential life sentences and because they were offered good deals by police and the Crown Attorney's Office.
The Crown told jurors that the Restrepos owed $1 million of $2.4 million from the sale of cocaine in Ontario, to Castro.
But the $2.4 million was seized from a tractor trailer by U.S. Customs at the Detroit/Windsor border.
Defence lawyers are scheduled to deliver their closing addresses tomorrow and Friday with the jury beginning their deliberations next week.
lrosella@mississauga.net