DRUG DEALER KILLED IN HOME INVASION, COURT TOLD

A small-time Brampton drug dealer died during a life and death
struggle with a gunman during a home invasion that turned deadly, Peel
crown prosecutor Steve Sherriff told a jury today.

"Mark Burrell executed Darwin Mantilla Pozo. . . he forcibly confined
him," Sherriff said in his opening address in a Brampton courtroom.
"He was a prisoner in his own home and couldn't get out."

Burrell, 25, of Mississauga has pleaded not guilty to first degree
murder.

It's the crown's theory that Burrrell was one of three armed robbers
who "burst into the apartment" on Jan. 31, 2003, looking for 3
kilograms of cocaine and $30,000 that was supposed to be stashed away
in a safe.

"Darwin was a small-time drug dealer but they thought he was big
time," Sherriff said.

But there were no drugs or money in the small apartment that night,
Sherriff told jurors.

"They got nothing . . . they went away empty handed," Sherriff
said.

He said the other two robbers - a female named Alecia Rowe, and her
drug-dealing partner Dwayne Campbell - have both been convicted for
their roles in the killing of the 21-year-old man.

Sherriff said Campbell and Rowe will both testify that Burrell was the
third gunman that night.

In his opening, Sherriff also told jurors that Campbell pleaded guilty
to manslaughter and was currently serving a nine year sentence for
accidentally shooting Pozo in the thigh during an initial struggle
inside the kitchen. For her part, Rowe received a four-year sentence
for robbery and is now on parole.

Describing Pozo as "feisty," Sherriff said the deceased man tried
several times to escape from the apartment and when Campbell's gun
accidentally went off, striking him in his thigh, he defiantly told
the shooter, "Look what you've done."

Sherriff told jurors that they will learn that Pozo was shot four
times - and that two of the bullets that entered his small
5-foot-tall frame were each capable of killing him. He said one of the
bullets struck him in his thigh while two bullets hit him in his left
arm. One of those two continued into his chest. A fourth and
potentially fatal bullet struck him directly in his chest.

"Mark Burrell intended to kill Darwin," Sherriff told the
jury.

"We say he fired three shots into him."

Pozo's girlfriend and his 14-year-old brother were also in the
apartment during the home invasion and Sherriff said the victim
collapsed into his young brother's arms and died seconds after he was
struck with the fourth shot.

"The young man saw blood gushing from his brother's arm," Sherriff
said.

Sherriff told jurors that a 9mm handgun, believed used by Burrell to
kill Pozo, was located in the Hamilton area. He said three bullet
casings from a 9mm weapon were found at the crime scene but forensic
investigators could only match one of the bullet casings to the 9mm
weapon that was recovered. As well, a casing from a .45 calibre weapon
that Campbell used to accidentally shoot Pozo was also discovered at
the crime scene.

Early on during the home invasion, Sherriff said that Rowe unplugged a
telephone from the wall of the apartment, leaving her fingerprints.
The markers eventually led police to her.

Sherriff said that police would never have become involved in the case
involving drug dealers had one of them not been killed.

Jurors were told that Rowe will tell them she heard the first shot as
she was leaving the apartment after realizing their plan had failed.

Moments before the first shot, Sherriff said Campbell heard the other
shots as he was leaving the apartment.

Jurors heard how Rowe initially knocked on the door that night,
holding an envelope in her hand, and telling Pozo that she had mail
for him which had been inadvertently delivered to her apartment.

"She was no angel," Sherriff said, telling jurors she believed she
would receive $30,000 and a kilo of cocaine for her role in the robbery.

Once Pozo opened the door, the other two armed robbers burst in and
"everything happened fast and furious" from then on, Sherriff said.

The trial before Justice Terrence O'Connor continues today.