Suspicion | The Billionaire Murders: The hunt for the killers of Honey and Barry Sherman - Playing For Your Country

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

Who is Chris Sheriffe? Elite soccer player. Aspiring carpenter. Good family. We hear from the people who knew him best, mother, sister, coach. We also learn about his experience growing up as a young Black teen in Toronto – the frequent police stops and his complaint about the most egregious one. He’s in his Catholic school uniform, heading home from class at the end of the day and cops are tailing him for no reason at all. And that new prosecutor, she puts the first degree murder case back on track. 

Suspicion, season four, is brought to you by Havelock Metal, quality metal roofing and siding. He was very active at a younger age. He was always doing daredevil stuff. Like, you know, he had no fear of getting injured. So we decided to put him in an activity. I think he was 10 years old and we started learning how to sleep. Marjorie, Chris's mom, is looking at a soccer photo of her son. Not just looking, studying,

remembering a time that was a lot simpler. His jersey is yellow with red trim around the cuffs and the neckline. Shorts are red, socks are a blend, and those eyes, they blaze confidently at the camera. A winner's look. No smile. He's got his right foot perched on a ball in that classic soccer stance. The first practice we went to, there was a coach there that wanted them. Chris was a natural. I know a bit about the youth game, having coached competitive soccer.

Every once in a while, an exceptional player comes along. And he was scouted out there. They in the game? The only one? So he had the potential. Talking to Chris's mom, Marjorie, with his dad, Lloyd, chiming in from time to time, it has a familiar feeling. If you've ever been on a bleacher during a practice or game, no matter the sport, you've heard the chit chat from parents. They spin through the names and qualities of teams their kids played for,

never quite satisfied. Eventually, Chris's province and country came calling. He was on the Antioquim. He was on the Canadian team. And he was on the community team. So he was with soccer. So he was on the community team. Then, even bigger leagues. He was called out by a coach from England. From the Toronto Star, I'm Kevin Donovan. And this is season four of Suspicion, Murder on Mount

Olive, episode five, Playing for Your Country. of suspicion. Murder on Mount Olive. Episode 5. Playing for Your Country. In the last episode, I told you about a major bump in the road for the prosecution in its case against Chris Sheriff and Awet Asfaha. How a preliminary hearing judge reviewed the evidence and ruled the case was shaky at best, specifically the Chris Sheriff part. Houette's case would proceed at the lesser but still serious second-degree murder charge, and Chris' charge was reduced to accessory after the fact.

A trial would be scheduled for the following year. While the prosecution launched an appeal of that ruling, lawyers on both sides began trying to answer the question, who was Chris Sheriff? He was always the athletic one, a lot of energy, which is why he excelled in soccer and other sports in comparison to the rest of us. That's Aquila, Chris's older sister. They spent a lot of time together.

He was honestly fun to grow up with. He would be the one, he'd wake up early in the morning, 8 a.m. and wants to ride bikes and be like, no Chris, that's too early, relax. Marjorie and Lloyd have a blended family. The youngest are Lloyd Jr. and Chris, the baby. Then there's Aquila and two older brothers from Marjorie's previous marriage. When Marjorie was a teen, her family came to Canada from Jamaica. Her mom was a seamstress. Her dad, originally from Panama, had numerous jobs. He did some architectural design and at one point sold medical supplies.

Lloyd's side is also Jamaican. He moved here when he was 30. His dad was an army lifer, his mom a homemaker. There's a strong work ethic on both sides. Marjorie and Lloyd felt at home in Rexdale, the community in the northwest part of Toronto where they raised their family. It's a working class, racially diverse neighbourhood. But from day one, Aquila said the kids got a stern reminder from Marjorie about the police. My mom always sent us outside with a warning. If anything happens, call us.

If they want to talk to you, be friendly. Like, that's the mindset we had when we left the house. Just don't get into it with them. It's not worth it. Aquila said that as a young black girl, and now an adult, she's never had an issue with police. But her brothers and male friends who are black all have. I've talked about the issue of carding in previous episodes, frequent stops of young black men. In my interviews with Chris, he's told me stories of times when he was stopped,

sometimes even wearing his soccer uniform, walking home from practice. Just think of that for a moment. He's 13 or 14 years old, in a soccer jersey and shorts carrying a soccer ball. A police cruiser pulls over. Two white cops get out. They question him, search him, write his information down on a card that's saved in a police database, then send him on his way. And that's something that we always went through, harassment by the police. There's even times where, me, I felt scared by the police.

I had to call the harassment by the police. Like, there's even times where me, I felt scared by the police. I had to call the police on the police. That time, Chris was in his Catholic school uniform, a white polo shirt with the school logo, medium gray pants. It was the first day of classes. Chris was 18 in his last year of high school, having missed a year due to overseas soccer. He'd just gotten off the city bus.

I'm walking home. And. I'm walking home. And while I'm walking home, I see the police overstop me. It's okay. He came, asked for my ID, gave my ID, gave it back to me. And I said, my case leave, take your case leave. A couple of blocks later, more police. The original cruiser and two more. They're following him.

It's a busy street. He crosses the road. Chris even calls out to drivers, saying police are following him. Up ahead is a school called Father Henry Carr. He used to go there before switching to another Catholic school because it had the carpentry program. So I'm like, okay, I don't know what's going on.

I'm gonna speed walk, I'm gonna speed walk, right until Father Henry Carr. He's in luck. As soon as he goes into the lobby of Father Henry Carr, he sees the principal, and Chris knows him. Sir, you guys are following me. They took my ID. They questioned me already.

They let me go. They took my ID, and they're still following me. Four cops come through the front door. They're yelling at Chris. So you're trespassing. You're coming under arrest. Who did, the police? Yeah, and the principal was like, no, no, no, no, no.

He's okay, he talked to me, he told me what's going on right now. Why are you guys following me? The police are taken aback. The principal takes out his phone and calls 911. He called the police on the police. So he called the police saying, hey, this kid is being followed. He was getting the ID. They told him to leave, and they're still following him. So they end up leaving the school. Except that's not the end of the story.

So now I'm walking home. I don't see them the whole way walking home until I reach my house. They parked right in front of my house. They're the whole time putting up a complaint. They dismissed it. I've got the record of his complaint. They're the whole time putting the complaint, they dismissed it. I've got the record of his complaint. It's typed, well written. Marjorie and Chris worked on it together.

First, they sent it to the Toronto police. A senior officer in the professional standards unit wrote back a month later saying she found nothing of merit and was dismissing the complaint. There was no investigation. Police never interviewed Chris, and I don't think they spoke to anyone else other than the officers present.

Then Chris and his mom filed an appeal with the civilian oversight body for police in the province. His appeal was denied. I wanted to know why. The appeal board dismissed it because it arrived in the mail four days after the 30-day cutoff. Chris said, this is what it's like being a young black man in the city. And if that's not harassment, I don't know what is.

Aquilla, Chris' sister, said after Chris went to prison, her mother and Loy decided it was time to leave Toronto. I don't know if it's just growing up in Rexdale. This is why my mother had moved. But even way before this happened with Chris, like I have two older brothers, they're in their 40s now. When we were living in Rexdale, one of my brothers was riding my bike and got pulled down by the police with off of the bike

and arrested in cuffs. And then after it was determined that wasn't a stolen bike and then let him go with the oh sorry so it's been going on for like we were there we've been living in Rexdale for like 17 years I would say the whole time there's always an incident so yeah we were pretty mentally like how to go out into the world like if we were approached like how we should handle it Aquila said Chris responded by keeping busy with soccer, school, and work.

Honestly, I think eventually it kind of frustrated him because he just wants to walk home. You know? He doesn't want to be stopped, especially if it's winter or something. You just want to come home. I think it would bother anyone. Eventually, it's like, oh, my god, just leave me alone.

Chris found the best distraction was soccer. And the kid, well, he could kick a ball. He was really good. He got a lot of attention. His control was excellent, 90 plus keep ups at a time. That's the soccer drill where the player keeps the ball in the air using foot, knee, head, anything but hands. And on the field...

He was known to be very fast. At one point, we called him Speedy because he was so fast. My stepfather would call him Hitter because he used to hit the ball really hard. Like, he was really good. That's part of the story behind a nickname that would come up at trial.

Hits. And not in a positive way. We'll be right back. Whether it's for your house, cottage or building, make your next roof last with Havelock Metal. Havelock Metal has been specializing in steel roofing, siding, trim and accessories for over 30 years. Visit HavelockMetal.com to request your quote today. At trial, hits became synonymous with hitman.

Marjorie told me that's ridiculous. She said that when Chris was a toddler, he was always whacking things, including his siblings. She says it was playful. Then he developed this ability to strike a soccer ball, hit it hard and very accurately. Eventually, everyone called him Hitz, and the nickname stuck. To get a sense of what Chris was like as a young soccer player, I tracked down Jeff Hackett. Apologies for the quality of the audio. There's some background noise. No, we played last night. Did you win?

Yeah, through nothing. We're playing at a really high level now. Our team is so good right now. Yeah. They had a tough game last night. What age? Defensively, on the 16th. Defensively, they just packed it in. We had to change our game plan a little bit. Go more outside, come in.

Zero, zero half time and then second half. We kind of turned them a part of it. Jeff is the head coach at the Global Satellite Soccer Academy. They scout players for international clubs, provide training, and run teams that play at the elite level. Among the Braggs, that's their word, is Junior Hoylet, a longtime member of the Canadian men's soccer team, who also plays for Aberdeen in the Scottish Premier League.

Also still listed as a Bragg is Chris Sheriff. Despite his former protege being in prison for murder, Jeff never considered taking his name off the website. Jeff first met Chris when he was 12. A little skinny kid, yeah. But the one thing that Chris had was speed, skill, and even at a young age, he understood the intricacies of the game. In the soccer world, football outside of North America, Jeff's goal is threefold.

To find great players, help them get scholarships, and if possible, coach them into a professional playing role. Jeff did all three of those himself. I'm originally from Barbados. So I played on the national team in Barbados. Then I got a scholarship at the University of Albany. And then I played at Venice in Portugal. Got injured in my third year. I became chronic with my knee. So I came back and picked up a coach. I'm sitting with Jeff at an outdoor restaurant. He has a powerful build, broad in the shoulders, wearing a track suit with his Soccer Academy

logo. He's wearing dark sunglasses, his trademark look judging by his website photos. Still, I can feel his eyes on me. He's wondering about his former star. I say, Chris is healthy, doing his best to get by in prison, not giving up. I asked Jeff to paint a picture for me of Chris the player. He tells me an early memory before he took Chris to England. It was the League Cup final.

At the time we were playing in the Ontario Youth Soccer League. So we'd have the regular season, then you'd have what they call the knockoff when you lose your album. And we went all the way to the final. The final was played in Oakville I remember. And very early in the game, maybe in the first 10 minutes or so, we got a cross in from the right side. And this little kid went up between two big defenders, out-jumped them, and scored a header to give us a 1-0 lead. We ended up losing the top two-one, but that was a moment that really stood out for me with this kid.

Not only did it show his athletic ability in terms of the physicality of the jump, but the mental capacity to take on two big guys and not flinch, one the header and score. It was absolutely amazing. Jeff has been on a soccer pitch all day. He's starving and he orders a lobster crab dip with tortilla wedges. Try this stuff, Donovan. What's that?

Try this stuff. What is this? Crab and lobster dip. Oh. What is this? Crab and lobster dip. Oh, nice. Yeah. I've brought clippings from newspaper stories about Chris' soccer wins. There's one headlined, Canada's under-15 national team,

Cassiside St. Lucia, 9-0. That was in Tobago in 2005. Chris, who was 15 that summer, scored three goals in that match and was named the most valuable player of the tournament. I've also got a letter Jeff wrote to the court to vouch for Chris' character and encourage the judge to grant bail pending his trial, which worked. Jeff writes, Chris seemed to have fashioned himself on our finest models.

He developed a strong work ethic on the pitch and his mental approach to the game was solid. Off the field, Chris was respectable, polite, shy, and kind-hearted. Okay, so I wrote the letter. It's easy to write. Very easy to write because that's who he was. I say to Jeff, there's something I'm trying to understand. Chris had this promising soccer career. He's playing for his country. He gets scouted and he's off to play in England for the junior versions of two clubs, Blackburn Rovers and Birmingham City.

It didn't work out. What happened? This is where Chris is. He went to Birmingham City. And after some time, Steve Boosh scored a make. We can't keep this kidding. An English coach Jeff was affiliated with, the late Mek O'Brien, had scouted Chris and worked a deal for him to play as a junior in England. Mek O'Brien said the Birmingham coach told him

Chris was a great player, but didn't fit in with the team. Because he just comes in, he trains, he doesn't speak to anybody, he doesn't say anything to anybody, then he leaves. So you know in football communication is huge. 100%. Right?

So that's how he got back to Canada. And it was soon after he came back to Canada that this incident occurred. Very soon after he came back home. Having spoken to Chris many times, I'm not surprised at these comments about his demeanor. He doesn't smile much, he's quiet, though he says he's more outgoing than he used to be. The Toastmasters speaking club has helped. I asked Jeff, was he ever bubbly?

No, no. As I indicated previously, he was always a quiet kid, very reserved. So this soccer star, a guy Jeff had coached on and off for six years, gets arrested in what is described as a gang shooting. I was shocked actually. I was shocked to hear what had transpired. I saw it in the papers first. And then I reached out to Marjorie, and Marjorie said that,

yeah, but Chris didn't do it. Chris said he did not participate in that activity. Jeff asked me a lot of questions about the process, the legal process, my process. He says what he saw in Chris was a young man driven by his sport. There was no time for any messing around, and he never heard a whisper of criminal or gang activity.

He chuckles. When would an athlete find the time? No, really, I wish him well. I hope the truth can be ascertained, and hopefully he can be a free man. He obviously wouldn't get back the years he's already lost, but there may still be time for redemption. We'll be right back. I grew up in the renovation business. If I wasn't a reporter, I would have been a builder.

And I know quality is key. So whether it's for your house, cottage, or building, make your next roof last with Havelock Metal. Havelock Metal has been specializing in steel roofing, siding, trim, and accessories for over 30 years. Visit HaveLockMetal.com to request your quote today. After speaking with Jeff, I go back to Marjorie. I tell her what the coach said, the nice, positive things about her son. But I also tell her what Detective Sansom and others have said. I ask her, is it possible that she is, as one of the lawyers at the trial called her, a mother in denial? That Chris was a bad guy and

that he hid everything from her. Marjorie says no. Chris was a hard worker on the pitch and when that dream ended, he found a Plan B. He was in a car printer course in 2009. He loved it. Chris kept playing soccer when he returned to Canada. But then he had two serious injuries. One during a game was from an elbow to the orbital bone. The other injury was to his knee. He couldn't play through that one. So he focused on high school, a year and a bit behind. Chris was never going to be a university or college candidate. He just didn't have the grades. One assessment describes him as having developmental delays.

But he liked working with his hands, so he took carpentry courses offered by the school and something clicked. I used to take him to school. My husband would pick him up at 9 o'clock at night. School ended at 3. He wanted to do an extra course so he could enhance himself. He loved the carpentry. His final year of school was a full course in carpentry. During this time, Chris was working two jobs,

busing tables at two local restaurants. He had also applied to join a trade union. That membership would help him work the big jobs with better wages and benefits. The carpentry union, okay? And they have promised him a job. Chris told me the union trainers taught him a lot. I worked, I got my carpentry apprenticeship at Local 27, where I was doing scaffolding, and then concrete forming, and welding, and framing at the same time.

So that's where I was before I came to jail. Then Chris was arrested. Marjorie said soon after that, the union membership office called. They had a job for him. When they contacted me in 2009 September, I didn't tell them that my son was in jail. I kept telling them call back, call back. They called me right back up until January of 2010 and I told them he wasn't in the country. I think a mother can be excused for this subterfuge. She said she really thought police would realize her son was not involved and dropped the charges.

Toronto was in the middle of a construction boom, and they needed skilled trades. Eventually, the union said they couldn't keep calling. And they said, okay, whenever he comes back, tell him to call us, because we do have a job for him. If you go online and search Chris Sherriff's name, you'll find a petition Marjorie and her family started. The headline is, Demand Justice for Christopher Sheriff, Wrongfully Convicted. Below that is a photo of Chris playing house league soccer. He looks tiny.

The growth spurt came when he was 16. He's smiling in this photo. The petition has, the last time I checked, 1,325 signatures. It begins, False evidence of Chris being in a gang was presented in 2012 to enhance a guilty verdict at the trial.

Here's Marjorie, who wrote the petition. Christopher was never in again. Christopher lived at home with us, his parents. It was my house, our house, my husband, and I had access to Christopher's room. None of my kids, my kids could never bring anything into my home that I didn't buy them. It would be wrong to describe Chris as an angel.

There are some things he'd like it to over on. I'll get to those. But nothing to suggest he was a gang member. The preliminary hearing, the one where the judge lowered his charge significantly, there was not one bit of gang evidence. Homicide detectives and gang squad detectives had found nothing in over a year of investigation.

That's one of the reasons I'm still fighting to get the audio of that hearing, to have a record of exactly how little they had. But then, when they got to trial, all of a sudden there was gang evidence. So, where did it come from? Next time on Murder on Mount Olive. He's just one of those coppers that everybody loves, that knows everybody and can tell you who's who. I think there's like 12 criteria courts will consider to prove somebody is a gang member. And so we had a local, a copper from that division

that was just all over, like, who's who in the zoo there. Murder on Mount Olive was written and narrated by me, Kevin Donovan. He was produced by Angeline Francis and Sean Patten. Our executive producer is JP Fozo. Additional production by Kelsey Wilson, Matt Hearn, and Tanya Pereira. Sound and theme music by Sean Patten.