{"id":718330,"date":"2026-06-06T05:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T05:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/718330\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T05:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T05:04:13","slug":"chaos-erupts-in-toronto-courtroom-after-jury-finds-man-not-guilty-of-murder-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/718330\/","title":{"rendered":"Chaos erupts in Toronto courtroom after jury finds man not guilty of murder – Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

A chaotic scene unfolded in a downtown Toronto courtroom Friday after a jury found a man not guilty of second-degree murder<\/a> charges.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dozens of family and friends of 20-year-old Makayla Roxburgh-Carpino<\/a> sat in shock when the jury foreman said not guilty<\/a> to count one for Harold Santana Simon<\/a>, but guilty to counts two and three, which are firearm charges.<\/p>\n

Superior Court Justice Suhail Akhtar then asked the foreman for clarification. The foreman repeated that Simon was \u201cnot guilty\u201d of second-degree murder. Simon was found guilty of unauthorized possession of a firearm and being in a vehicle knowing there was a loaded firearm.<\/p>\n

Roxburgh-Carpino\u2019s family members then began shouting as they realized Harold Santana Simon had been acquitted of killing their loved one.<\/p>\n

A man who was upset stood up and appeared to begin rushing towards the prisoner\u2019s box, where Simon was sitting with his face in his hands. The man was held back by court officers.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou murdered his only child and got away with it,\u201d yelled one woman. \u201cThis is ridiculous, my only grandkid. You came and took her away from us, dear God,\u201d the woman continued yelling, before falling to the floor between two rows in the gallery of the courtroom.<\/p>\n

Another woman shouted, \u201cHow could you do this. I can\u2019t breathe. You\u2019re a b\u2014-. You\u2019re going to die,\u201d as Simon was led out of the courtroom by court officers.<\/p>\n

Simon had pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder of Roxburgh-Carpino, a friend of his ex-girlfriend, Sentoree Kamara.<\/p>\n

On Monday, during closing arguments, Simon\u2019s lawyers, Angela Ruffo and Megan Andrews, told the jury that the Crown had proven that Simon was guilty of two firearms charges related to the discovery of a loaded handgun that was in his possession when he was arrested during a high-risk takedown in Orillia on the night of May 11, 2024.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat happened to Ms. Roxburgh-Carpino is awful. She was killed with an illegal firearm that belonged to my client. It\u2019s reasonable you will instinctively want to hold someone accountable. Your sadness about what happened to Roxburgh-Carpino and your anger towards my client does not mean he\u2019s guilty of murder,\u201d Ruffo told the jury.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old Simon testified he kept the loaded gun which he had acquired in 2022 at Kamara\u2019s apartment for protection because he had been threatened before and that threat existed near where Kamara lived.<\/p>\n

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Simon told the jury around 5 a.m. on May 11, 2024, he went to Kamara\u2019s apartment to reconcile. Simon admitted earlier in the evening, he was upset after learning Kamara was texting with other men and admitted he then contacted Roxburgh-Carpino and Kamara and called them \u201cwhores\u201d.<\/p>\n

Simon testified that after letting himself into the apartment, he was annoyed to see Roxburgh-Carpino in Kamara\u2019s bed and said she wouldn\u2019t leave.<\/p>\n

When things escalated, Simon testified, it was Kamara who pulled his loaded handgun out of her dresser next to her bed where he stored it. Simon said he wanted to disarm Kamara and said the gun accidentally discharged as he was trying to get it out of Kamara\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t sure if it was him or Ms. Kamara who actually depressed the trigger. In the dark and the chaos of the struggle, he didn\u2019t see where Ms. Kamara\u2019s finger was. The entire thing lasted about 10 seconds,\u201d Ruffo said in her closing address.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFrom when he reached to her wrist to when the gun went off, he was stressed, scared and angry. He realized Roxburgh-Carpino was hit and panicked. He said it was an accident and repeated he was sorry. He testified that though he hoped she was alive, he acted selfishly like a \u2018p\u2014-\u2018 and ran without trying to help her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruffo told the jury he had no motive for killing Roxburgh- Carpino and said there should be concerns about Kamara\u2019s reliability. She was a witness for the Crown.<\/p>\n

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Kamara testified that Simon let himself into her apartment in the middle of the night with a key he had taken. Kamara said Simon came in calling them \u201cwhores.\u201d She alleged he ordered Roxburgh-Carpino to leave and when she wouldn\u2019t, went into the living room, got a gun, came back into the bedroom, put a gun to her head and shot her.<\/p>\n

Assistant Crown attorneys Geocelyne Meyers and Cynthia Valarezo said in their closing address that jealousy and anger fuelled his attendance at Kamara\u2019s apartment and he was angry that Roxburgh-Carpino was interfering.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was that jealousy and anger that motivated him to shoot Makayla. It is clear that Mr. Simon meant and wanted to kill Makayla,\u201d said Valarezo.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot believe Mr. Simon when he tells you that Makayla\u2019s death was an accident. There are many examples of how he is unable to tell the truth.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came to court with an agenda. His evidence appeared rehearsed. He kept going back to his script, repeating his own story. He even forgot his script at one point and had to be cued.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday, after the verdict was read out, Simon\u2019s lawyers suggested to the judge their client be released on bail, pending his sentencing for the gun convictions.<\/p>\n

Justice Akhtar said it was not the time to address bail before stepping out of the courtroom, as the chaotic outburst in the gallery continued.<\/p>\n

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A date for sentencing has yet to be set. Simon, who has been in custody since his arrest two years ago, is facing a deportation order upon the completion of his sentence. Court has heard he has no status in Canada.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A chaotic scene unfolded in a downtown Toronto courtroom Friday after a jury found a man not guilty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,2169,259972,259973,131111,3302,259971],"class_list":["post-718330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-crime","tag-harold-santana-simon","tag-makayla-roxburgh-carpino","tag-second-degree-murder","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-fatal-shooting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}