Two Men Convicted for Murder of Brampton Realtor Denied Appeal in Court
Published April 10, 2019 at 7:58 pm
A judge has dismissed the appeal case of two men currently serving time for first degree murder.
A judge has dismissed the appeal case of two men currently serving time for first degree murder.
Marlon Nurse, 36, of Caledon, and Darryl Plummer, 32, of Brampton, were convicted in 2014 for the 2011 murder of Devinder Kumar, 38, a realtor from Brampton.
Kumar, who had been renting a house to Nurse on The Gore Road, was lured to the garage were he was allegedly attacked by Nurse and Plummer armed with knives. He was able to escape to the side of the road where he was again attacked.
Kumar was stabbed in the neck, back and abdomen multiple times. In the original hearing it was believed he suffered 29 injuries, with ones on the back of his neck and side of his stomach being fatal.
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Witnesses ran to the aid of Kumar and tried administering first aid. Nurse, who ran off with Plummer before witnesses and police arrived, returned to the scene. He claimed he saw “three men dump his body” in the road, later changing his story to he witnessed the attack by a african american man.
It was at this time Kumar pointed to Nurse, then to his injuries and back to Nurse. This was the last actions he made before succumbing to his injuries. Plummer was soon found and later Nurse was also taken into custody. Police found blood on both men’s clothing matching Kumar’s.
The investigation later found deleted BBM messages between Nurse and Plummer, planning the murder. Nurse owed Kumar upwards of $3,600 for rent, and was soon going to be evicted. He convinced Plummer to help him commit the crime, promising him half of whatever they found on Kumar as well as his Range Rover.
Though both men were given a life sentence with 25 years with no chance of parole, they filed for an appeal almost immediately. Two grounds of appeal were made.
First, it was argued that Kumar pointing at Nurse was wrongly admitted as evidence capable of identifying him being involved in the killing. This was dismissed as it could be considered a ‘dying declaration’ which means the last actions of Kumar could be taken into account during the hearing.
Secondly, argued that the BBM chats between Nurse and Plummer were inadmissible. They believe that despite the fact that data was extracted from their phones with a valid warrant, it was not fully analyzed until new forensic software was available a year later. This was claimed to be an infringement of their rights by not getting a second warrant.
The judge dismissed this as well, stating that the phone was already seized by a search warrant, and if a second was needed it would have been given before a second analysis. He also added that because the nature of the BBM conversation detailed a plot to murder Kumar, it is strong evidence in the case and is admissible in court.
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