Life sentences for North York double killing

Toronto man now convicted of three murders by age 23

- JACQUES GALLANT

Oct. 1, 1995, is the day Delauntae Bryant came into the world, and Oct. 1, 2019, is the day he was cruelly taken out of it.

On his 24th birthday, he was gunned down by assailants while standing alone outside a unit on Grandravine Drive in North York — for no apparent reason, other than he was there when the gunmen showed up.

“Delauntae was a real person and not a statistic; although forgiveness can come later, right now is the time for justice,” his sister Alina said in court Friday, reading a victim impact statement at the sentencing of her brother’s killer.

“Jatorri Williams must be held accountable for what he has done.”

Jatorri Williams, left, was handed a life sentence on Friday for murder in the Oct. 1, 2019, killing of Delauntae Bryant, 24, right.

Williams, who is now days away from his own 24th birthday, stood in the prisoner’s box as Superior Court Justice Philip Campbell sentenced him to a mandatory term of life in prison with no chance at parole for 25 years for the first-degree murder of Bryant.

Campbell convicted Williams last month following a judge-alone trial. He also received a life sentence Friday for the first-degree murder of Eric Rowe, one of the other three gunmen who was unintentionally shot by accomplice Jeziah BlairTaylor during the attack on Bryant. Campbell nonetheless found Williams liable for Rowe’s death.

And Williams was also convicted of the attempted murder of a teenager shot while walking in a different neighbourhood shortly before Bryant’s killing, a boy who was left with permanent injuries to his hands — he used them to protect his head as he ran from the hail of gunfire. Williams was given a 12year sentence Friday for that crime.