A Toronto-area man has pleaded guilty to committing an indignity to a human body in connection with a March 2020 fatal shooting in Clearview Township in what police described at the time as a home invasion/robbery gone wrong.
Charges against a second man were dropped. A third man facing related charges returns to court next week.
Just after midnight on March 2, 2020, Huronia West OPP responded to a shooting at a home on Collingwood Clearview Townline near 36/37 Nottawasaga Sideroad, west of Nottawa.
A man was sent to a Toronto hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A few hours later, police in Toronto discovered a body on a sidewalk outside of a hospital clinic that was determined to be related to the Clearview shooting.
The dead man was identified as Rohan Rose, 36, from Toronto. At the time, police said he was considered a suspect in the home invasion.
Marvin Lattif, 35, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to committing an indignity to human remains by disposing of a dead body at the side of the road.
Court heard that earlier on the previous evening, Rose, along with another man, met Lattif at a Toronto apartment complex and they headed north in a black Mercedes allegedly being driven by a fourth man. Before leaving Toronto, they stopped for gas, which was captured on surveillance video.
Several hours later, just after midnight, OPP responded to a shooting at a Clearview Township home. The home’s resident had been shot twice. Court heard Rose was also shot at the residence and was killed.
“The Crown is not in a position to prove beyond a reasonable doubt what, if any, role Marvin Lattif played in the events that transpired” at the Clearview home, Crown attorney Julie Janiuk told the court Tuesday.
Toronto police were able to find street surveillance video of the black Mercedes at 1:55 a.m. exiting Highway 400 and heading south on Jane Street.
Janiuk said the Mercedes stopped at Uphill Avenue, north of Woodward Avenue, where Lattif and another man pulled Rose’s body out of the back seat and left the body on the sidewalk.
Janiuk said Lattif made no admissions related to what happened in the Clearview Township home. In staying the other charges against Lattif, she said the Crown reserves the right to reinstate the charges if he testifies otherwise.
Charges against Rick Graham, who was 32 at the time, are being stayed, meaning he won't be prosecuted. As part of the plea deal, the Crown also reserved the right to reinstate the charges against Graham if Lattif’s matters aren’t resolved as expected.
Paul Morris, who was 48 at the time, from Toronto, was charged with careless use of a firearm, indignity to a dead body, attempted murder using a firearm, robbery using a firearm, and failure to comply with a release order. He returns to court Dec. 7.
Lattif is to return to court for a sentencing hearing Feb. 1.
