Suspicion - The Crime

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

On a hot, sunny day in August a man is shot three times. It happens outside a barbecue. Witnesses give different descriptions of the shooter; police flood the area looking for clues. What happens that day will end up putting a young soccer player turned carpenter behind bars for life for a crime he says he didn’t commit. This is the story of Christopher Sheriffe and his fight for justice. Audio: CTV, Global, Doomstown movie trailer Suspicion Chief Investigative Reporter Kevin Donovan, who brought you the Billionaire Murders, is back with Murder on Mount Olive, an investigation of a crime the courts closed the book on in 2012. On a sunny day in August, 2009, a man is shot three times at a barbecue. What happens that day will put a budding young soccer star turned carpenter behind bars for life for a crime he says he didn’t commit. This is the story of Christopher Sheriffe and his fight for justice. Subscribers can listen to episodes early each week, plus get exclusive access to bonus episodes. 

Imagine you're facing life behind bars for murder. Now let's say you're offered a deal. Plead to a lower charge and get out years earlier. Would you take it? Or after a decade in prison, you had a second chance at freedom. Both offers come with a catch. Admit responsibility. Take accountability for your actions,

for taking a human life. This Rexdale neighborhood is no stranger to gun violence. Three people have been murdered in August alone. The most recent victim, a 34-year-old man shot dead yesterday in a brazen daylight drive-by shooting on Mount Hollow Drive near Markingingrove and Steeles. If you did, you'd walk out those prison gates while you're still relatively young.

Think about it. To be there for the aging parents you love, who supported you and sacrificed so much. Maybe get married, take your kids to the beach, to soccer practice. 25 years and possibly more, that's a long time behind bars. Hello, Kevin Donovan. Hi, Kevin. Excuse me, Sheriff Carter.

Oh, hi Chris. Thanks for calling me. How are you today? I've spoken to Chris Sheriff many times over the past year. On the phone, in person behind bars. He's a tall guy, over six feet. His mom, Marjorie, says he looks like basketball star LeBron James when he was younger. There was a time when Chris was on track

to be a soccer star in England and get a spot on the Canadian men's squad. As a junior Canadian at international games, he scored a lot of goals. to be a soccer star in England and get a spot on the Canadian men's squad. As a junior Canadian at international games, he scored a lot of goals. His debut in 2005 made headlines. On a tremendously hot afternoon in Tobago, even by local standards, Canada's under-15 national team easily dispatched St. Lucia 9-0. After Canada opened the scoring, Christopher Sherriff doubled the lead a mere three minutes

later. Not to be outdone, Sherriff netted his second and third of the contest as Canada dominated. Over the past year, Chris and I have talked for hours and hours about his case, life, his family, sport, police, lawyers, the justice system. His pro-soccer chances ended with injuries, but he had a backup plan, carpentry. He studied hard and qualified for a school program aimed at getting him a job. But then in 2009, he was arrested and charged with first- murder in the shooting death of Bishan Gholap. Three years later, he was convicted. Being in prison 12 years so far, with at least 13 more to go.

In these conversations, I've asked him the big and very obvious question many times. Are you innocent? Yeah, I am innocent. This is one of our calls in the fall of 2023. I'm in my Toyota Highlander, parked in the lot of a Canadian tire store. I'd gone there to pick up some plumbing supplies for a home project. The simple things you can do when you're not behind bars. It's pouring rain. You can hear it in the recording.

Big drops bouncing off the metal roof. I asked Chris, what the heck? You're in your early 30s now. Why not take the easy way out? Say you are involved. Admit responsibility. Push for a chance at getting out at least a few years early. You keep battling the justice system.

Chris, I say, you've tried the appeal route and failed. I will keep pushing. I will keep fighting for that. And I am going to keep fighting for my freedom. And I have for the past ten years, I have been in. It is not a day where I said, you know what, I'm going to give up. I'm going to say, I gave up. I did have a promise.

I could have been a minimum of one. I could have been a lower security, but I chose not to because I can't go against my own world and be ready myself for something I didn't do that's not just Chris asked for my help after he came across the billionaire murders a docu-series and podcast I did on the unsolved Barry and honey Sherman case I was pretty tough on the cops in the justice system and that caught his attention He sent me a letter. Hi, my name is Christopher Sherriff.

I was convicted of first degree murder. I asked Chris if he would read his letter during one of our calls. I currently have an active case with the criminal conviction review group. I am messaging you because there was a lot of wrongdoing which led to a wrongful conviction in my trial, and would like to shed a light on it.

In my case, they brought forceful DNA, which wasn't known at the time. Dune was led to a wrongful conviction in my trial and would like to shed a light on it. In my case they brought false DNA which wasn't known at the time. The crowd entered false reports that didn't come from forensic science that indicated a false match. The forensic science expert in fact came back and said it did not mask that person in question but was still used and said masked that person in question, but was still used and said it was his DNA. They have all the documents, the reports, if you need to look at them. You can also contact my mother Marjorie Sherr if interested. Please write me back. Thank you for your time. I get a lot of these, people asking for help.

It's the job of journalists to check these stories out, but there's so many we can't dig into them all. people asking for help. It's the job of journalists to check these stories out, but there's so many we can't dig into them all. But something about this one really stuck out. Maybe because I'm a parent, or it could be that I used to coach soccer and I know the type of dedication the sport requires. Hard to be a gangster when you're busy on the pitch

and working and going to school. Maybe because I've been around long enough to know that sometimes the system gets it wrong. Here, there was a general allegation of wrongdoing at his trial and the very specific allegation about false DNA. But what really got me was that after all these years, he was still protesting his innocence so vigorously. He wouldn't take a deal in the early days and now he won't consider saying he had any involvement in the murder, though it might get him released earlier.

So I set out to answer a fundamental question. Did Chris Sheriff have anything to do with the brutal murder of a man named Bishan Golub at a neighborhood barbecue in 2009? From the Toronto Star, I'm Kevin Donovan and this is season four of Suspicion, Murder on Mount Olive. Episode One, The Crime. Emergency, do you need the police Department, Ambulance, the Fire Department? It's August 16, 2009. A stifling Sunday afternoon. 104 degrees Fahrenheit, 40 degrees Celsius. The pavement on the road is so hot it sticks to your shoes.

Overhead, the sky is wild, dark clouds gathering to the north. This is Mount Olive, a neighborhood of tidy homes and some low-rise, low-income housing. It borders the Jamestown community, which takes its name from the street and social housing complex on its south end. In this corner of Toronto, Canada's biggest city, three shots rip through the air. Marjorie Boland is sitting inside her townhouse. From her favorite chair, she has an excellent view through a large picture window of the sidewalk and street. She dials the phone she always has by her side. The 911 dispatcher logs a call at 1 48 p.m.

Can you tell me the police phone number? A gentleman just went by here. My heart's beating so bad. He had a gun in his hand and then and there were shots. Marjorie, not to be confused with Chris Sheriff's mom with the same name, is 76. She doesn't get out much and certainly not on a day as hot as this. Plus, she's got mobility issues. She was run over by a forklift at her company years ago. Most days, she just sits on her chair in the front room and watches TV. She's oblivious to a yard party two units over, until she hears sounds. I just saw it very fast because I didn't know if it was a shot, but I did see the gun in

his hand and he had a gray top with a hood on. She'd been flipping channels when the sound of gunfire made her sit up straight and look out the window. The man she sees on the sidewalk is moving from right to left across her field of vision. She sees him raise his right arm. There's what looks to her like a gun in his hand. The man turns and points the gun over his left shoulder, back the way he has just come. And then he's gone out of her sight.

On the phone, the operator presses Marjorie for details. Patrol cars are on the way, but the operator needs a description. Did he look like a really tall guy or like medium or short? Well, he could be about five, seven, I would say. Did he look like chunky, heavy build or skinny? No, very small build, man. I mean, I just want you to know because I mean, I...

That's why I'm trying to get as much information. I saw the gun and it scared the hell out of me. Marjorie is understandably flustered. It's not that she doesn't know this area can be violent. She's seen stories on the news about shootings before. But it always seemed to be blocks away. Marjorie offers a final piece of information. There seems to be a lot of cars out there too right where it happened.

I don't know what's going on but there was two to three shots when he... Did you hear any cars race off at the same time? No, no, he was on foot. Like I don't know if there was somebody waiting at the end of the street now. I don't know because I'm disabled. But I heard the shots and saw the gun in his hand. That's all I know. We'll be right back. At Unit 155, just east of Marjory's townhouse, a summer party has turned to chaos.

That's the word several witnesses would later use at the murder trial. They'd been enjoying a barbecue in a small yard with family, friends, and kids. The host was Winsome Santokie, who'd just moved into the area. Well, my aunt, Winsome Santokie, she's my aunt. And I was there for a barbecue. That's Kamora Robertson, the niece of Winsome, the woman who had just moved into Unit 155. Kimora had three young children and her fiance at the party. Later in the day, she and her family were planning to visit a sick relative. And we were there, we spent the night, and we were there barbecuing in the backyard

and getting ready to go and see my grandfather in the hospital because my grandfather is battling cancer right now. None of the barbecue guests would be recorded for this podcast. One of them, Barrington Chattery, told me, I don't think anybody wants to talk about that day. Kamora, for example, had to take her kids to therapy. What you're hearing

is an audio recording of Kamora when she was interviewed by police a few days after the shooting. So we were getting ready to go to the hospital when the incident happened. These units on Mount Olive are part of a two-story red brick row house. There's a great sense of community in the Jamestown Mount Olive area. Nobody can afford a summer trip or a cottage, and few have air conditioning. There'd been a birthday party the night before. Colorful balloons were still tethered to the fence, moving slowly in a light breeze, a sign of big weather that was on its way.

Every once in a while, the baking heat would pop one of the balloons, and the kids would jump, startled, then giggle. In the kitchen, lots of leftovers and snacks, popsicles in the freezer, meat was cooking on the barbecue. This yard, which looks onto Mount Olive Drive, is tiny, bounded by a gray chain-link fence with a gate. A dozen adults and kids packed in. Some standing and chatting, others reclining on lounge chairs, or sitting on grass burned brown by the sun.

A four-door gold Honda stops on the side of the road, and a man gets out. He leaves his car running, snaps his four-way flashers on. It's Bishan Golub, a friend of Kamora's aunt. We called him Kim. That was the nickname that we had. And he came to visit her. He's five foot nine inches, a little overweight. His hair is braided, but cut short.

That day he's wearing a red golf shirt, white Nike shoes, blue jean shorts with a silver buckle. He waves, smiling. And he was standing on the outside of the gate and my aunt walked down towards the gate to talk to him. And my son, my youngest son, he ran up to go and say hi. And he was standing right by her foot. And they were standing there talking, I would say, less than five minutes.

Kim is standing on the other side of the waist-high fence. He asked Winsome when the food will be ready. Everybody's in a good mood, catching up, talking about last night's birthday party. I was talking to my fiancee Kurt and my grandmother Mavis was sitting there, my cousins and my boys. All three of my boys were there. And we were, you know, conversating and laughing and stuff. The next few seconds are burned into Kimora's memory. She sees a man with a grey hoodie appear on the other side of the fence, the same side Kim Golub is on. She hadn't seen him as he approached

because of dense bushes in full bloom that covered part of the fence, doubling its height. This guy, it was a black guy. He walked up from the, it would be the left-hand side. I'd noticed him from the left-hand side, and he walked up. The police officer taking her statement has asked for a description of the shooter and

anything else she can recall. I noticed him from the left-hand side and he walked up. I didn't really take nothing of it and he walked up and then he stopped. He stopped just before the bushes in front of the house, and he put up his hood. Kimora said the first thing she thought when the man flipped up his hood was, well, hot sunny day, maybe he's trying to shield the sun. She noticed something else.

In the few seconds that she saw the man's face, she noticed his hair was like Kim Gollib's, braided in cornrows. But his braids were a bit longer than Kim's, just above his shoulders. Then she heard a bang. Because at first we thought that it was the balloons that were still up, we thought, you know, because they had been popping all day. Then, more sharp sounds. We had the first shot, when the first shot went off it was kind of like, you know, everybody kind of jumps.

We thought it was a balloon that popped, but then we heard two more shots. The man in the hoodie turned back the way he'd come. I heard three shots, you know, pow, pow, pow, and then he took off running. She saw a gun in his hand. It was like a black gun with kind of a long nozzle. The nozzle was kind of long. Kimora says it's like a starter pistol that she's seen at track and field events.

On the other side of the gate, Kim Gollop staggers forward. Kim, he turned around and we saw the blood. And he was, you know, he stood for probably about 30 seconds and then he kind of stumbled and fell over. And, you know, I screamed out, oh my God, he got shot. Kamora said it didn't seem real at first. It was like something she'd seen in a movie. He stood and he stood and he like turned to us, you know, and then that was, he went like this and that

was when we saw all the blood, you know, we saw all the blood and then he turned. Yeah, and his shirt, because there was a spot on his shirt and it was getting bigger. As Kim fell, Kimora ran forward. Her two-year-old was standing at the gate. Her other children were close to her in the yard. And, you know, I grabbed my kids, you know, to bring them inside, and my fiance, Kurt, he ran to get my two-year-old

that was standing right by my aunt. And we checked the baby, you know, checked him, and then he ran inside. Inside, she picked up a phone and dialed 911. Said a man had been shot. And then I went outside, you know, because we went out to try and help him and he, you know, he was on the ground and I went and I got pillows. Kim was lying on his side on the sidewalk. He had his hand over his chest, but when it fell away, blood poured out.

A car stopped out front behind Kim's car with the four-way flasher still on. A nurse got out and ran over. She'd been driving home from a shift at the hospital when she saw the commotion. Kimora tucked the pillows under Kim's head. Someone else brought a bag of ice. The nurse looked Kim over.

Some people were crying. We were just, you know, tending to him, trying to keep him from closing his eyes, because he was, you know, he asked, where's the ambulance? And, you know, we told him, ambulance is on its way. They're coming, don't worry.

He said, stay, you know, open your eyes, open your hands. You know, you know, open your eyes, open your eyes. You know, you know, we can hear them. They're coming, they're coming, don't worry. We'll be right back. Kim was struggling to breathe. One bullet had struck him in the back between his shoulder blades passing through his left lung. It grazed his heart, finally lodging in the muscle in the front of his chest. A second bullet also entered through the back, this one near his armpit. It exited his body in the muscle in the front of his chest. A second bullet also entered through the back, this one near his armpit.

It exited his body in the front. The trajectory was from his back on the right, but the bullet traveled upward through his body. This bullet likely hit him as he was bending over from the impact with the first shot. The third wound was to his right hand, and that's where that bullet stayed, caught in the muscles and bones and cartilage. Emergency, do you need police fire ambulance? Hello, I'm just walking here on Silverstone. Yeah, somebody shot here three times.

There was a third call to 911 that afternoon. Narjit Singh was walking north along Silverstone Drive when he heard what sounded to him like firecrackers, like the ones at Diwali, the Hindu festival that celebrates good over evil. Narjit and a friend were just about to turn left on Mount Olive, that's the street where the barbecue is being held, when he heard the sharp sounds and a man ran past them. The man was wearing blue jeans and a gray hoodie. Narjeet only had a second to look at his face, but he noticed the man was dark skinned

and he had a thin cropped beard. What caught and held his attention and scared him was something in the man's right hand, like a black pipe, and the man was holding it in the fold of his sweatshirt, low, near a pocket. The man's left hand was covering the object. Narjit was pretty sure it was a gun. Looking at the direction the man in the hoodie came from, Narjit saw a crowd gathering.

He talked to the 911 operator as he moved closer. The guy's bleeding. Can you send ambulance? Yeah, ambulance is on the way. Narjit is a welder in his late 30s. He'd lived in the area for nine years. This Sunday, he was helping a man he befriended, a neighbor who had an intellectual disability and needed help looking after himself.

Narjit and his friend were heading to pick up a pizza when they heard the shots. The operator asked if the gunman was still in the area. But the person shoot and he run away from us. Description? The operator asked? The guy with the gun, can you describe him? He's a...

He's a female, white, black, Asian. Black, Asian, black, black, look like a Somalian guy. Young guy, like maybe 22, 23 years old. Okay. And the five, maybe six feet tall. Six feet tall guy, like maybe 22, 23 years old. Okay. And the fight, maybe six feet tall. Six feet tall, front door, mini window, heavy window? Almost, almost close to six feet tall. Okay.

You'll recall Marjorie Bolin, the first person to call 911, described the shooter as short, five foot seven. Marjorie saw him through her living room front window. Kamora Robertson, who was considerably closer to the gunman, she estimated the shooter was 5'8", and a teenager, 18 at most. Narjeet has him at 6 feet and in his early 20s. Kamora says the shooter had braided hair. Two others at the party say, well, they're not sure.

It all happened so fast. Now, it's not unusual for witnesses to a crime to have very different recollections, even minutes from when they saw something. Narjit was trying to help, but he had another concern for his own safety. I can't count this guy because I'm scared. He's just looking for me because I'm the one who on intersection. He just want to shoot three times. He was shooting at you?

No, shooting at the guy, the person that I don't hear. Okay, okay, what was the matter? What was the matter? What was the matter? What was the matter? What was the matter? What was the matter? What was the matter?

What was the matter? What was the matter? What was the matter? What was the matter? What was the matter? What was the matter? As Narjit joins the group clustered around Kim Gollop, an ambulance arrives. Two paramedics began working on Kim Gollop. He has lost a lot of blood from the chest wound. He's taking deep, gasping breaths, a sign that his lungs have deflated. Their only hope is the nearest trauma hospital, and they start preparing to move him. A few seconds later, a Toronto police car arrives, stopping on the road just a few feet from the crowd.

The first officers to arrive at a shooting scene have three jobs. Determine if there is an immediate risk to public safety, help the paramedics, and secure the scene for detectives, gathering information from witnesses. Kimora, the nurse, and others take a few steps back, hoping, praying. And he, you know, his eyes were kind of rolling back, and we were tapping his face, saying,

no, no, look at us, stay awake, look at us. The two police officers unspool yellow caution tape and cordon off the scene. One of the paramedics runs to get a gurney, wheels it up onto the sidewalk, and they get Kim strapped on and into the back of the ambulance. One medic rides with him, another drives, one of the cops in the passenger seat. They race off to the closest trauma hospital, Sunnybrook. The shooting happened at 1.45 p.m. Kim's en route to hospital 23 minutes later.

At 2.26 p.m., 41 minutes after the shooting, the medic in the back of the ambulance radios that Kim Gollib is VSA, vital signs absent. Thinking there's still a chance, the driver steps on it. At Sunnybrook, Kim is rushed into surgery. At 2.51 p.m., a little more than an hour after the shooting, a trauma doctor pronounces Kim Golub dead. His murder is the 37th homicide of the year.

Back on Mount Olive, the partygoers are silent. Parents huddle with their kids inside the townhouse. Out front, a watery trail of blood runs down the sidewalk. The two pillows Kamora brought out are stained red with Kim's blood, wet from the melted bag of ice. A Toronto Police forensics team arrives. A couple of plain-clothes detectives pull up in a dark sedan. Police start taking statements. This sort of scene, it's not uncommon in the area.

Someone even made a movie about it. [♪ music playing on radio and radio playing in background. People screaming and yelling in background.] Three years before the shooting, this area of Toronto, three communities known as Mount Olive, Jamestown and Silverstone, were the setting for Dooms Town, a movie about drugs and gang wars. Dooms Town is what people sometimes call Jamestown. Sometimes they just call it the town. That's a clip from the movie trailer.

It opens with happy scenes of children playing, riding bikes near townhouses that are not far from the spot where Kim Gollag was shot. Then the scene moves to an outdoor basketball court and a pickup game. There's one guy wearing a red shirt. And other guy says something he doesn't like. And the guy in the red shirt pulls a gun. Yeah, you all right? Yeah. Jedi, come give me a hug, man. Come give me a hug. I'm sick and tired of our children

dying at each other's hands. The people who lived in the community and the cops and paramedics dispatched to crime scenes didn't have to see the movie. They lived it. The film premiered in 2006, the year after one of the worst summers for gun violence in Toronto. It was just two months into his term as police chief and Toronto was beginning a time that

would soon be known as the summer of the gun. It was sunny and hot, an average of three degrees above seasonal highs. From June to September we sought 25 gun related homicides, all of them men ranging in age from 17 to 46 years old. That's a global news anchor describing a cluster of shootings in 2005 that became known as the summer of the gun. Four years later, the year our story begins, it was almost as bad. Police were on edge. So when Kim Gollop was gunned down, the officers on the scene didn't give the cause, the reason for the shooting, a second thought.

Gangs. The fact that the victim was wearing a red golf shirt was to them a clue. Here in Mount Olive, where the Crip gangs wear blue, police say nobody wears red. That's the blood's color. The Toronto Police Homicide Squad is requesting the assistance of the public in determining the activities of Mr. Golob. That's a Toronto homicide detective making an appeal for information.

Was Kim Golub in a gang? After the initial rush to judgment, police were having second thoughts. Kim had been a furniture maker, had a wife and children. The Toronto police, they've got something called the Toronto Police Gang Criteria, and they use it to determine who's in a gang and who is not.

Things like the person has been caught in a gang activity, has associates in a gang, has a gang tattoo. Kim didn't check any of the seven boxes. They did have one promising lead on the killers though. Remember the 911 caller, Narjit Singh? He provided a key piece of information. Here's the 911 dispatcher and Narjit. Okay, how many people were in the car?

Two people, one is driver, one the guy shoot and another guy stopped the car on silver stone and he run away to the car. Okay, so they were shooting from the car. At first, the dispatcher thinks this was a drive-by shooting. Narjeet says no. He says a car was waiting around the corner on Silverstone and the shooter, who was on the cross street, Mount Olive, ran across the road.

Narjeet says the shooter got into a waiting car which drove off, turning right at the stop sign, without stopping. Okay, the guy guy that was shooting did he get in the car? Yeah he go he run away he just run away. Okay but who was in the car? The driver. The driver was the one that did the shooting? No the person the the passenger. The passenger was doing the shooting?

Yeah he come he just walk way to here and shoot this guy and run away. Narjit has another piece of information he's been trying to tell the dispatcher. Anything else you can tell me about them? Anything else that you can remember? The car number is, the car is Mazda 544S something. The tree is ladder, I can't read because the person looking for me, I'm afraid he can shoot for me too, right? Okay, 544S like Frank and then two other numbers, right? Narjit corrects the dispatcher. He says he saw the license plate as the car left. 544S, S for Sam. He tried to get the last two digits from the plate, but was too scared to go closer, fearing he would be shot.

Narjit is adamant it's a silver Mazda. He'd actually owned a similar car a few years back. The dispatcher asked about the driver. What did the driver look like? Driver looked like the same, like a Somalian, ancient black. The dispatcher asked Narjit to stay at the scene to speak to an officer. He does, but he's not keen on hanging around too long.

He's a little afraid, and also he's looking after his friend. Meanwhile, dozens of patrol cars flood the area. A few reporters show up. A homicide detective goes on TV saying they're baffled. Here's a CTV anchor on the local news. Officers have found no connection between this murder and other recent shootings and homicides in North Etobicoke. The victim had been visiting a friend on Mount Olive Drive when he was shot.

The detective who gave that information to the media was being less than truthful about where they were in the case. They did have a theory. Next time on Murder on Mount Olive. So Winsome has a son, and he's abandoned. He's a member of the Bloods. And so the theory was that these two mutts mistook Winson's, well,

mistook the victim for Winson's son and thought he was a member of the Bloods. Because there had been a shooting between the Bloods and the Crips. Murder on Mount Olive was written and narrated by me, Kevin Donovan. It 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 Pattenen.