Suspicion | The Billionaire Murders: The hunt for the killers of Honey and Barry Sherman - Choices

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

It’s now been 13 years. Chris reflects on decisions he made. The friends he had. Staying out that hot night in August instead of going home. And on what he would do if he is ever released. In the final episode of the series, we offer him a potential lifeline. Tell us what really happened between you and Awet, what he said, what he was planning to do that day. Surely this was a drug deal gone wrong. 

Right now he's playing out the rep team right now, too. He loves it. He loves it. He has everything. And he's better than me. He can shoot with both feet. He shoots left and right, naturally. So he has a head starter than me. That's a conversation I had with Chris Sheriff just before this podcast series launched. His son is 13 now and quite the young soccer star. His daughter is 14. What about your daughter? What's going on with her? My daughter, she's more, she's doing flag football.

She's working with a daughter, so she likes hair, she likes nails, and she's also into the flight football. Chris has watched his kids grow up from afar. His daughter lives with her mother. She and Chris are not together. As for his son, the boy's mother passed away, and he lives with Chris's parents, Marjorie and Lloyd. I asked Chris about the outside world.

If you got out of prison tomorrow, like right out of prison, what's the first thing you do? I'll spend time with my family. I spend time with my loved ones. Like, you know, there's a lot of time I missed all already. And I just want to kind of make up for that, associate with my kids. Chris has been in federal prison for 13 years,

plus time in provincial jail awaiting trial. He was 19 when he was arrested, 22 when he was convicted. He's 35 now. I ask him, what would be the hardest part of getting out? The biggest challenge is more of settling back into the, into society. Like, I've been away for a long time. A lot of changes happen and places look different.

Being able to travel from place to place, getting the job. Like, those would be the biggest challenge. It's getting my feet back into society and getting the living and be able to support myself and my family. Alone in his cell, he often ponders the decision he made that Saturday night so long ago, after the barbecues, after juicy jerks. jerks, the decision to go to the hotel and stay out all night. Yeah, I do.

I look back at the choices, and I've seen signs of saying, just go home, go home, like, you know, and I didn't take it. From the Toronto Star, I'm Kevin Donovan, and this is season four of suspicion. of episode 10 choices okay I'm calling again okay I'm calling again I'd hi Kevin hi there just wanted to check in they haven't they contacted you I just call them let me go down and see what's happening there I'd arranged with prison officials to conduct another interview with

Chris, this time by video. I wanted to press him on a theory I had about the murder, among other things. The call was scheduled for 1 p.m. At 110, I was staring at a blank screen. I reached out to a prison official. You're at the facility, correct? Yes, I'm at the facility, yes. Maybe there's an issue with therein.

There's nothing spicy going on at Collins Bay today? I am in the different department, so I honestly have no clue what's happening. I waited. While I've spoken on the phone to Chris many times, and in person at Collins Bay when I started this investigation, this would be the first time seeing his face in a year. The screen finally bubbled to life. Chris is putting on a headset.

The audio cuts in and out. You tell him I can't hear. You said he can't hear. Can you hear me now? Oh, it's not plugged in. It's not plugged in. Chris fiddles with some cords. All right, good to see you again.

That looks like the same place where I met you in person. Yes, it is. It is. Yeah. Yeah, they kind of change their own. The renovation here, but same place. Chris is wearing a white, long. long-sleeved crew-necked sweater that looks to me like the one he had on when I first met him.

As we start chatting, it's clear he's more self-assured, more, I don't know, put together. I think his Toastmasters public speaking has paid off, that and the 30-plus courses he's taken. Not many left to do, he says. There's still a couple programs that I'm on the waitless for. So I'm on the waitless for the CPR. I'm in a philosophy course. course right now. They have another philosophy course where it's a university credit and they have another entrepreneur course that I'm trying to get involved in. Some of these courses, it's tough to get in. It's harder for me right now because they're trying to focus on people who are getting out

rather than the people who are doing life. The public speaking club remains his favorite, something he couldn't have imagined doing before his arrest. When you look at it now, you see at least 2015, and it's like consistently people come in, they like to do it, they're talking in front of everyone, they're getting used to it, they're talking freely, everyone's comfortable, everyone's like, it's like a mini family in that hostmaster group. His own family on the outside has never given up on him. I pull out my phone and play part of a recent chat I had with his mom, Marjorie. I'd been to see her a few weeks back.

Believe me that I'm not. I'm doing a little bit better than. Since 2009, it was worse. But because he's okay. And I hear from him every day. It helps me. Plus, I have his son here. And I know I have to stay strong.

But both of them. Having Chris's son living with her in Lloyd helps. I love him to death. He's my savior. Take him to school. I bring him lunch every day, and I pick him back up. And that all feels me. Chris listens, his face as it usually is, not a lot of expression.

But when I ask him about his mom, his eyes widened and he lights up. The Chris Sheriff version of lighting up. Just the hint of a smile. Oh, yeah, like she said, like I talk to her every day. My mom, like my best friend. I talk to her every single day. Chris has changed so much since I first met him. He's more open about his feelings and more reflective.

He says he focuses on trying to improve himself and stay safe. And again, like me being in here, the reason why I don't get myself in trouble is because I think about her and my family. Like, you know, like I kind of think selfishly. I can't only think for myself. I think for my family. I don't want my family worrying about me or if I'm getting in the place or anything's happening.

So I try to save all the trouble, all the problems, just because that's who I think about. Those are the people who I prefer. We'll be right back. This interview happened. shortly after a change of government in the United States, an looming trade war between the U.S. and Canada. I asked Chris if he and the other inmates knew much of the outside world.

Yeah, people talk about the news. We talk about the news a lot. Some people who are seeing and all day in here, too. So they know everything that's going on in America, especially with going on with Trump, and what's going on with the Canadians over here. It was affecting us, the taxes, the tariffs, and stuff like that. So we stay pretty much up to date. I tell Chris that I want to revisit the weekend of the Kim Gullop murder to talk about choices, to look back at his 19-year-old self.

There was girls there. I'm young at a time. Like, no, I want to be a wrong girl, so. He's talking about Roxanne and Hannah, the two college students he met at the barbecue. Roxanne was the one he had the connection with. He said he had a kid mentality that day, not thinking straight. But, like, looking back now, yeah, I want to change it. Like, I would just want home. I wouldn't care about the girls. At least I would have had my whole life ahead of me and got to do everything I need to do.

If I just avoid that one situation. Okay, the young women. I get that. But what about a wet? When you were driving him home, why pull over when he asked? Was there something about him? Something you admired? Cool, older guy?

Chris said no. He barely knew him. I asked, were you scared of him? No, he didn't do anything for me to be scared of. Like, you know, again, like, that's what I'm trying to say, like, I've never seen him with a weapon. I've never seen him with a weapon. I've never seen him hurt anybody. I never seen him anything.

I push Chris a bit here. I've got a theory about what was really going on. I ask, did you know he was a drug dealer? I think I know he got caught with drugs before he got arrested and got charged for trafficking or whatever possession of whatever he had. I know that, but, like, other than that, like, I didn't have any fear or anything like he was going to do something to me. Here's the next part of our conversation. So I've got this theory.

And I'm really going to ask you to dig deep here and try and recall conversations. You wanted him to pay for gas, right? Yes. And you knew he sold drugs. Well, I didn't know he saw drugs at that moment. it, but I didn't know what he was doing to get money, but he said he can not pay the gas. Okay, but so remember you go to that gas station, you're hoping he's going to pay for gas. Instead, he goes and buys some cigarettes.

Yes. Then he gets back in the car. And you told me that you're not pleased because you've been driving them around all night. He wants some money for gas. Yeah. And I expect you were a little bit concerned that you're going to get in trouble from your parents for bringing the car back on empty. Yeah, I was concerned.

I know when I was 19, if I didn't find some money and put gas in the car, I'd catch it for my father. You see, me, like, I find things to do that they need, like, if they need the house to be clean, that they need the grass to be cut. Like, that's how I kind of, I have choice that I do in my house. So that's what I kind of do to kind of make up for it. Okay, so we're in, you're in the car, and you've agreed with me that, that you needed gas, you wanted some money for gas. Yes.

So I am going to put it to you that at some point in that conversation, when he said pull over and you pulled over on Silverstone, he said, I'm going to go sell some drugs. No, no, he didn't say anything. He just pulled over. He got out and that was it. Like, he didn't say what he was doing. He said you're going to come back to give him two seconds.

He'll come back and that's basically it. Chris says, if he knew, knew a wet was planning to sell drugs, he wouldn't hide it. He would have told the jury. Okay, no, no. If I knew you're going to go sell drugs, I'd say, yeah, I thought we went to go sell drugs and that's what happened. I would have said that, like, I don't feel like that would be a big deal. I'll be honest. I was at first disappointed with his response. It seems so obvious to me that this was a wet's plan. Or at least, this is what he said to Chris. I guess I was looking for a confession of some kind

to fill in the blanks I still had on what happened. But then I started thinking about it and realized that Chris has been telling the same story for all these years. It's very likely the truth. No, he just came back in the car, he sat down, and he said, okay, we're good, and I just drove off.

He drove off, drove down Silverstone, right to, If he had a do-over, Chris said he would have asked a wet what he was doing. I understand, like, the logical question is, like, why not ask him what he's doing? But when you're in a situation, like, in the moment, you're not, I'm not really thinking that anything going to happen or something that's going to happen down the street or anything like that. Like, this is, again, like, this is not the first time someone asked me for a ride.

Another thing that's been nagging at me relates to Chris's cell phone. This was 2009. It was a Blackberry, a phone he and his mother shared, which was registered to Marjorie. According to police, the phone was off all night. I played Chris a text message his sister Aquila sent early Sunday morning while he was still at the hotel. There'd been a power outage in some parts of the city.

This is Aquila reading her message. If you are awake, do you have power where you are? Chris said he never received it He was having fun at the hotel And his phone was dead The power was on at the hotel But he had no way to get his phone going No I didn't carry a phone charge on me

No I always kept that my house I only had the one charge so I kept that my house The one that closed into the wall I didn't have a phone I didn't have a phone that goes to the car It's had the one at my house I asked him about this Because a lot was made at the trial

About how his phone was mysteriously off in the early hours of Sunday, and until he got home later that afternoon. The opposing lawyers made it seem like he kept it off to help him conceal his location. I didn't see any evidence of that. It may simply be that his battery died. To help take his mind back to 2009, I also played for him text messages his sister sent the next day, the Monday, which he never saw because he was in the police interior. interrogation route. Just letting you know I'm thinking about you and praying. You are the best brother in the world. I love you so much. Thinking about you again. I love you, bro. Chris said that

was typical of Aquila. I was always close to my sister and my brother. You know, they always looked off me. All the face of the baby, right? So they always looked off for me. They always made sure I was okay. Still on the theme of choices. I shift the conversation to his friends, the guys he hung around with back then. The guys from the Hustle Squad photo. The guys police sources say are gang members, and Chris says they're his pickup basketball squad. I asked Chris, do you wish you had other friends back then? And I'll say no. And the reason why I said no when I was sick to have the sheds because before my case, none of these guys were known to the police who were in trouble with the police and were even labeled a gang member. At Chris's trial, some of those guys

testified for him. Afterwards, they became linked to gang activity through that police checklist I told you about earlier. Chris was now a convicted gang member, so they were now guilty by association. Chris feels badly about that. He says a lot of those guys he knew from when he was little, and they all encouraged his soccer career.

They pushed me to play soccer. They push me, they know me as a soccer career. That's how they know me. They know me from being a soccer person, telling me to keep playing soccer. They want to see me on TV. Going into prison with a gang label, as Chris did, meant guards and fellow inmates looked at him differently. His file was marked STG, security threat group,

a classification prisons used to profile someone who is in a gang or organized crime. After he'd been behind bars for five years, Chris decided to do something about it. He wrote to Correctional Services Canada, which oversees prisons. I've got a copy of his note. Hi, I am looking to get the STG off my file and would like to know if there are forms I need to fill out. I would also like to get a copy of the police report

that they gave you about me being a member of a gang. The response Chris got back didn't take long. First, Toronto Police had no record of Chris being in a gang. There was no report to send to the prison. A new entry was made on Chris's prison file. Considering your recent behavior within the institution, we will be inactivating your STG. You have turned your life around while incarcerated, and because of that, you will no longer be considered a Jamestown or Hustle Squad member.

dated October 11, 2017, five years after he went to Collins Bay. Why, how come I'm not a gang member right now? Why is as soon as I get convicted, they say this gang no longer exists? Maybe, Chris says, it's not that mysterious. And that's what I'm saying that's going on in the community, it's going on with these areas of high black people. They're targeting people. They're creating people.

They want people to be gang members. That's Chris's perception. And I can see where he's coming from, knowing what he's been through. But given the lack of information on Chris in the Toronto police files, I decided to ask him about that bodies to his name comment by Officer Nosser's source. Have you in the 15 years since then been questioned by any Toronto police officer, any Toronto homicide, to find out anything that would help them solve any case? anything?

No, because there is nothing. Those are all these conversations just to get to bolster their story. Where are these bodies? When did it happen? What year? What month? Where? They can't, but they can say it to them just to make their case sound like it's true,

and I'm a bad guy. I've asked the Toronto police to comment on this and other problems I found with the case against him. I sent detailed questions about the confidential informants, confidential informants, the false DNA, the rush to charge by homicide. Stephanie Sayer, a spokesperson for the Toronto Police, sent back a short response. I've asked a voice actor to read it. As you know, it is the role of police to investigate and pursue charges where the grounds exist

and the Crown's responsibility to assess the case and make the decision to prosecute or not. In this case, Mr. Sheriff was found guilty by a jury. His appeal was unsuccessful, and as you said, the case was extensively litigated. Any decision to reopen or reinvestigate this case would rest with the courts, not the police. We'll be right back. When Chris went to prison, his parole eligibility was automatically set at 25 years because he was convicted of first-degree murder. That means Chris has 12 more years before he can apply. But he's just two years away from what is known as a faint hope appeal. Here's how this works.

Fifteen years into a life sentence, an inmate can request a review of their parole date. Ontario's Chief Justice must then decide if there's a realistic chance of them getting out earlier. If so, a jury of 12 conduct a review. It's not a new trial, but an examination of several factors. The character of the applicant, the nature of the offense, the effect on the victim's family, and anything else the judge handling the case agrees they should look at. One factor would be, does the applicant take accountability for his offense? For Chris, that's a non-starter.

Yeah, that would actually help me to get out. So do it. Why not do it? I can't. I can't admit to something that I didn't have an involvement in. Again, like, if it takes me staying longer in jail, I have to stay longer in jail. Even after all these years, Chris continues to pour over his trial transcripts. That's how he found the false DNA that his lawyers had missed. Now, he thinks he's found something else.

So we were trying to get in contact with a witness who the police used from a confidential informer to be as reliable. Remember drops? So right now, we're at the stage that we found a person. we're trying to get in contact. Drops is the guy, Officer Nasser's source said Chris Sheriff was looking for, part of a back-and-forth retaliation

that ended up with Kim Gullab, an innocent victim, being shot dead. And, Awet Asfah, Chris's co-accused, testified that he heard third-hand it all started with Chris ripping a chain off drops at a mall. Drops, by the way, is a giant, much bigger than Chris. It never happened, Chris says. And one of his lawyers has set out to prove it.

In early 2025, they found drops. He's in a jail in Ontario, facing drug and gun charges. In the case, they called him drops. And they try to say that I was after him. They say, I gone to a fight with him. I took a chain from him. I know his real name, but I'm not including it here until I see how this plays out.

And I'm trying to speak to drops as well. Chris and his lawyer are hoping the man will say the story was untrue. I have an interview and basically show them all the lies that's going on in the trial. What the witness they're saying and things that people who they're saying is reliable and information that this person is providing,

which is fake and is fabricated. Chris is upbeat about his chances. So they're going to book an interview with him, see his side of the story, if me and him got into an altercation, if I took a chain with initials on it or anything like that. Now, Drops is facing some pretty serious charges. A search warrant on his car turned up a loaded semi-automatic Glock handgun,

396 grams of fentanyl, 200 grams of cocaine, and a box of 45 caliber bullets. Will he speak to them? And even if he backs up Chris's story that the two have no connection and there was no beef between them and no stolen chain. Will that be enough to reopen Chris's case?

So they can intervene to jail and hopefully he can come out with the truth and say, yeah, all this is a lie that I wasn't after him, never quantified with him, never had a conversation with him. We never even had a conversation before. Nasser testified the two sources had never lied to him.

Chris wants to prove they did. Nassir said, if one opinion, his witnesses or a CI's or whatever to say something that wasn't true, then they're going to have to review this whole case. Nosser never said anything about a review, but he did say that these sources were 100% trustworthy. Looking at the clock on my computer, I can see that our one-hour time is almost up.

I want to talk about the victim. I ask Chris if he ever thinks of Kim, Gallup's family. He says he does. In fact, he'd like to talk to them. I hope that their family does see this interview and I'm willing to sit down and I'm willing to talk to them. They can ask me whatever question they want to ask me. I won't want to clear my name. I don't care about the course. The course is the course. The course has never been for the black people. You know, I want to talk to them and show them like I didn't have nothing to do with it. Chris was there in court when members of the Gallup family,

read their victim impact statements. He heard how he and a wet were called cold-hearted and evil. And I don't want to be put in that kind of a spot where it's like I'm going to have to live with someone hating me for something that I didn't have nothing to do with. It's almost 2 p.m. I asked Chris, what do you have coming up for the rest of the day? I thought it would be a dumb question,

given that he's in prison, and it's a place of routines. I have a couple of things to do in the institution, so some people are in SEG. I'm trying to get some people all the SEG. SEG is segregation. There's actually a new name for it, an attempt to make it sound more humane,

structured intervention unit. But it's pretty much the same thing as it always was, an inmate separated from human contact. Chris is part of a committee of inmates that meets with prison officials when there's an issue. In this case, a dispute between two inmates got violent. You guys had a fight. Again, I get these guys together, mediated it, everyone's good. It was a one-off situation and miscommunication and trying to get everyone back right now.

Chris makes enough money from his jobs at the prison, carpentry and the committee work, that he can buy food from the canteen. And he has access to a toaster oven. What's for dinner? Oh, I didn't even think of dinner. I probably make, I don't eat from the cafeteria. The cafeteria food is really, it's bad. The food that they give out in the prison is really bad,

so I more make my own food. So probably today, I probably just make chicken and some rice. I have chicken in the freezer that makes some rice. Chris takes off his headset. We both press the end call button, and the connection goes dark. I did ask him one other question, though. It was when we were talking about his case and how he feels that racism had a lot to do

with him being in prison. Looking from his lens, he sees white cops, white prosecutors, white judge, white jury. I asked him, what if any message he's given to his own two children? I said,

the police don't treat us equally. And it's true. They don't cheat black people equally. If you're black, they find you in a certain area. They find you in a group, they're automatic and think you're up to something bad or you're going to do something or you're a criminal or you're a guy member. Any specific instructions? Talk to them with respect.

Don't put your hand in your pocket when you're talking to them. Always keep your hand and clear sight and things like that. So here we are. As of today, Chris Sheriff remains in prison. He and his family are still fighting for his freedom. What do I think? As in, is he guilty? From everything I've learned in this long journey, the evidence doesn't support a finding of first-degree murder. It just doesn't.

Sure, it's possible that Chris had some knowledge of the shooting, before or after. But there's simply no evidence. None at all. The police and the Crown Attorney had a hunch, and the jury agreed. All of these questions raised in our series will be at the heart of Chris Sheriff's new bit for freedom. In early 2025, the federal government established the miscarriage of Justice Review Commission,

an independent body created in response to new men. wrongful convictions in Canada. It will investigate and decide which criminal cases should be returned to the justice system for a new court hearing. Thank you for listening to Murder on Mount Olive. the 10 episodes, we have three bonus episodes for subscribers. They deal with confidential informants, policing, and the Innocence Project, which seeks to undo wrongful convictions. On this story, as well as the billionaire murders and death in a small town, there's more to come as I continue

my investigations. So, stay tuned. Murder on Mount Olive was written and narrated by me, Kevin Donovan. He was produced by Angeline Francis and Sean Pattenden. Our executive producer is J.P. Foso. Additional production by Kelsey Wilson, Matt Hearn, and Tanya Pereira. Sound and theme music by Sean Patton. Thank you.