http://www.thestar.com/News/article/217574
From the Toronto Star, 25 May 2007
School video got killer

Nabbed by security cameras, intruder takes plea for 2006 knifing of student at nearby hangout

May 25, 2007 04:30 AM
Peter Small
Courts Bureau


Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 6:33 pm Post subject: Naija pikins for Toronto don dey do drugs, dey kill others

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http://www.thestar.com/News/article/217574
From the Toronto Star, 25 May 2007
School video got killer

Nabbed by security cameras, intruder takes plea for 2006 knifing of student at nearby hangout

May 25, 2007 04:30 AM
Peter Small
Courts Bureau

A teenager caught by video cameras wandering the halls of a Toronto high school has pleaded guilty to stabbing one of its Grade 11 students.

Within a few hours of police releasing images from the hallways of Downsview Secondary School, which he did not attend, Oluwasegun Akinsanya made arrangements to turn himself in to police, homicide Det. Stacy Gallant told reporters.

If C.W. Jefferys Collegiate, scene of the Wednesday shooting of 15-year-old Jordan Manners, had been similarly equipped with video cameras, it would have been of great help to police, Gallant said.

"I would encourage other places to have security cameras," he said.

In court yesterday, Akinsanya, 19, admitted to stabbing 17-year-old Danilo Celestino, described by his family as loving and academically gifted.

Akinsanya pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but not guilty to second-degree murder.

The accused was 18 on the afternoon of April 20, 2006, when he went into the high school looking to buy drugs, according to Gallant.

When he couldn't find his dealer, he went to a nearby Coffee Time Donuts shop in a plaza on Wilson Ave., east of Keele St., a gathering place for students.

Akinsanya was directed to Celestino, a small-time marijuana dealer.

They went to the bathroom to do a transaction, but just as Akinsanya was about to leave, Celestino produced a knife and slashed him twice on the back of the neck, said an agreed statement of facts read out yesterday by prosecutor David Wright.

Akinsanya pushed Celestino back into the bathroom, disarmed him and slashed him three times with his own knife. One of the cuts to the boy's back sliced an aorta, Akinsanya's lawyer Ted Royle, told reporters.

Both teenagers rushed out of the coffee shop, where Celestino collapsed. Akinsanya fled.

Superior Court Justice David Watt accepted a joint recommendation from Crown and defence and sentenced Akinsanya to 34 months in prison. Including his time in jail before the trial, it amounts to a five-year term.

"It will never restore the deceased's life or expiate the grief and loss to his parents and sister, but that is not the purpose of sentencing," Watt said, as Celestino's mother, Elma, sat weeping near her husband. Watt said five years was well within the appropriate range.

Royle said his client, who has three older sisters and a supportive father, was barely an adult when Celestino came after him with a knife. But he admitted that his client's retaliatory stabbing of the youth "was an inappropriate response , which has brought this tragedy for everyone involved."

In her victim impact statement, Celestino's mother said the loss from this "senseless act of violence" will affect the family forever.

She recalled a happy youth, good in school, with ambitions to be a computer technician. In Grade 8 he was a traffic crossing guard and at age 12 a volunteer for the Pope's visit, she said.

The father, Danilo Celestino Sr., recalled the "sweat and sacrifice" of trying to provide for his immigrant family and raise his boy properly. "I don't have enough words to express my pain and suffering," he said.
_________________
"An unrestricted satisfaction of every need presents itself as the most enticing method of conducting one's life, but it means putting enjoyment before caution, and soon brings its own punishment." -- Freud, Civilization and its Discontents.
wandering the halls of a Toronto high school has pleaded guilty to stabbing one of its Grade 11 students.

Within a few hours of police releasing images from the hallways of Downsview Secondary School, which he did not attend, Oluwasegun Akinsanya made arrangements to turn himself in to police, homicide Det. Stacy Gallant told reporters.

If C.W. Jefferys Collegiate, scene of the Wednesday shooting of 15-year-old Jordan Manners, had been similarly equipped with video cameras, it would have been of great help to police, Gallant said.

"I would encourage other places to have security cameras," he said.

In court yesterday, Akinsanya, 19, admitted to stabbing 17-year-old Danilo Celestino, described by his family as loving and academically gifted.

Akinsanya pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but not guilty to second-degree murder.

The accused was 18 on the afternoon of April 20, 2006, when he went into the high school looking to buy drugs, according to Gallant.

When he couldn't find his dealer, he went to a nearby Coffee Time Donuts shop in a plaza on Wilson Ave., east of Keele St., a gathering place for students.

Akinsanya was directed to Celestino, a small-time marijuana dealer.

They went to the bathroom to do a transaction, but just as Akinsanya was about to leave, Celestino produced a knife and slashed him twice on the back of the neck, said an agreed statement of facts read out yesterday by prosecutor David Wright.

Akinsanya pushed Celestino back into the bathroom, disarmed him and slashed him three times with his own knife. One of the cuts to the boy's back sliced an aorta, Akinsanya's lawyer Ted Royle, told reporters.

Both teenagers rushed out of the coffee shop, where Celestino collapsed. Akinsanya fled.

Superior Court Justice David Watt accepted a joint recommendation from Crown and defence and sentenced Akinsanya to 34 months in prison. Including his time in jail before the trial, it amounts to a five-year term.

"It will never restore the deceased's life or expiate the grief and loss to his parents and sister, but that is not the purpose of sentencing," Watt said, as Celestino's mother, Elma, sat weeping near her husband. Watt said five years was well within the appropriate range.

Royle said his client, who has three older sisters and a supportive father, was barely an adult when Celestino came after him with a knife. But he admitted that his client's retaliatory stabbing of the youth "was an inappropriate response ,  which has brought this tragedy for everyone involved."

In her victim impact statement, Celestino's mother said the loss from this "senseless act of violence" will affect the family forever.

She recalled a happy youth, good in school, with ambitions to be a computer technician. In Grade 8 he was a traffic crossing guard and at age 12 a volunteer for the Pope's visit, she said.

The father, Danilo Celestino Sr., recalled the "sweat and sacrifice" of trying to provide for his immigrant family and raise his boy properly. "I don't have enough words to express my pain and suffering," he said.
_________________
"An unrestricted satisfaction of every need presents itself as the most enticing method of conducting one's life, but it means putting enjoyment before caution, and soon brings its own punishment." -- Freud, Civilization and its Discontents.

Now we can see more clearly. Oluwasegun Akinsanya is one of those despoiling our image like the spoils of war.