Rising Toronto rapper Da Crook walked out of a Toronto courtroom a free man this week after Justice Sheila Ray systematically destroyed the prosecution’s case in opposition to the Hip-Hop artist referred to as Da Crook in a $6.5 million luxurious watch heist.

The 31-year-old was accused of taking part in an armed theft at a Spadina Avenue watch vendor on October 30, 2023, the place masked suspects made off with 150 watches — primarily Rolexes — valued at $6.5 million and $250,000 in money.

The brazen daylight theft was captured on surveillance cameras and confirmed one suspect posing as a FedEx supply driver to realize entry to the sixth-floor workplace.

According to the Toronto Star, prosecutor Mark Friedman had offered what he referred to as 10 “extraordinary” coincidences linking Collins to the crime, together with DNA proof on a balaclava and COVID-19 masks discovered on the scene, walkie-talkies bought by Collins 4 days earlier than the theft, and $23,000 in money discovered at his dwelling throughout his arrest six months later.

But Justice Ray wasn’t shopping for it. In her acquittal choice, she methodically addressed every of the Crown’s 10 factors, providing her personal 10 causes to dismiss them.

“It was entirely plausible and reasonable that Collins bought walkie-talkies for use in his music videos,” Ray discovered, rejecting the prosecution’s declare that the communication gadgets tied him to the theft.

The decide was notably skeptical of the DNA proof, noting it was “unlikely the perpetrators of such a carefully planned robbery would take incriminating evidence to a crime scene.” She instructed the objects within the field had been merely discarded sooner or later relatively than intentionally left behind.

When it got here to bodily identification, Ray delivered maybe her most pointed rebuke: “There are thousands of people in Toronto who look like him. There are thousands, maybe more, (Black people) in Toronto who are light-skinned people — we see them every day.”

The prosecution had additionally tried to make use of Collins’ rap lyrics in opposition to him, enjoying his tune “First Day Out” in courtroom.

In the observe, Collins raps: “Google is telling me my net worth is seven million, s—, oh really, guess I been getting busy” whereas standing in entrance of a white Rolls-Royce SUV.

“That’s this case, right, that’s the watches that you stole,” Friedman challenged Collins throughout cross-examination.

“I disagree,” Collins replied, explaining the lyric referenced “inaccurate” and “crazy” issues folks had been saying about him on-line.

“All my music videos have nice cars in them,” he testified. “Even if a rapper is broke, he’s going to rent a vehicle or put nice clothes on to make it look like he’s doing good. No one wants to see a Honda Accord parked behind him.”

Defense lawyer Alison Craig referred to as the Crown’s use of rap lyrics “stereotypical, inappropriate… and a dangerous submission to be making.”

Justice Ray in the end discovered that even contemplating all of the prosecution’s arguments collectively, together with “very weak eyewitness identification,” the Crown didn’t show past an inexpensive doubt that Collins was one of many robbers.

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