My blood is my ink / My tears are my tales / I did a couple years in jail / But I shall prevail
—rhymes by Corey Wrght AKA Vinny Deniroz
He smiled. Big smile. “What you doing after?” It was nudging four in the morning on Saturday, November 4, 2006, closing time at Rain, the downtown Halifax nightclub where Corey Wright had spent his evening. He’d glimpsed her earlier. She served drinks in the bar. Hot. He’d made eye contact. Smiled. She’d smiled back. Now, he chatted her up. Got her name, her number.
“Got to clean up,” she told him.
“Do your thing,” he shrugged. But they agreed, in the way such things are agreed to, that he would wait outside for her.
As he bounced down the steps from the second floor bar to Argyle Street, Corey Wright couldn’t help thinking just how well all the pieces of his life were coming together.
Finally.
He and two friends had spent the early evening hours at Wright’s apartment chillin’, freestylin’ and drinking a six-pack of Corona, lubrication for their night ahead. At around midnight, they’d made their way downtown to Rain.
Wright had heard that Madd Links, the new host of Black Entertainment Television’s Rap City, and Big Apple, an American-based rapper, would be at the club that night. He’d printed out a copy of his portfolio, grabbed a couple of his CDs—Vinny Deniroz was his rap name, Hali Hustler the name of his CD—and “got all dolled up and pretty.” Corey Wright was going to make it in the music business, and tonight would be his opportunity to start networking his way to the top.
The night had gone even better than he’d hoped. He’d handed Madd Links his card, joked about the host’s perceived weaknesses—“How come you don’t rap in the booth?”—and engaged in similarly familiar chat with Big Apple.
“What you drinking?” he’d asked Apple at one point.
“I’m not a big drinker,” Apple replied.
Wright went over to the bartender anyway. “Send over a couple of drinks,” he said.
Before the two American rappers left for the night, Wright had even gotten a few pictures taken of himself with them.
Which may explain why he hadn’t been paying attention to the booze-fuelled storm brewing inside the club between some visiting American sailors and a group of local blacks, most of them guys Wright knew from the hood. When one of them, the half brother of a buddy, told Wright about a “nice chain” he’d seen around the neck of an American sailor—“I’m gonna take it”—Wright tried to discourage him. “Don’t do that man,” he said. “You got a nice chain too.”
Now, however, Wright spilled out onto Argyle Street and into the messy middle of the seething tension. To his right, familiar faces, friends; to his left, American sailors. Everyone was circling, puffed up, strutting, acting hard.
Wright looked around, then back up the stairs, saw the waitress coming down. “Fuck this,” he thought to himself, “I’m going with her.”
But just then, something happened—who knows what—and people started beating on each other. Someone punched Wright. He swung back. He hit some people, got swarmed. He kicked, punched, fought back. Someone pulled his shirt up over his head. He felt something cold against his skin—a blade! He knew what a knife felt like, knew what it meant. So he “spazzed,” swinging ever more wildly. Down, up, down again. Swallowed by the crowd. On his knees on the sidewalk, he eyed the spoils of battle: scattered wallets, cellphones, watches, even a shoe that had come off in the melee. He grabbed what he could, shoved them in his pockets. Except the shoe. Who needs one shoe?
Finally, he saw his escape. A few of his buddies were inside a nearby car. He jumped in. His hand stung. He looked down. He was bleeding from where the knife had sliced him. Before he could staunch the bleeding, a patrol car pulled up behind them.
“Get out of here,” Wright shouted at the driver.
“No, man,” his friend replied. “We ain’t done nothing.”
Wright knew that wouldn’t matter. I know how it goes. Besides, he was on parole, less than two months away from the end, less than two months from freedom.
From off in the distance, he heard someone shouting, “My friend’s been stabbed…”
He opened the car door, jumped out, ran for it.
The murder of Damon Crooks—he’d been stabbed four times, including once through the heart—shocked and appalled Haligonians.
For starters, his killing was just the latest, worst example of the crazily escalating mindless mayhem plaguing downtown Halifax. In June, The Coast had published a cover story about what one criminologist called Halifax’s “dirty little secret,” the reality the city “had the highest violent crime rate among the 17 Canadian cities surveyed.” As if to drive the point home, in the week before the murder the press had reported that four more people had been assaulted in two separate attacks near Pizza Corner, the traditional final pit stop for local late-night bar-hoppers.
To make this murder more reprehensible, the victim, Damon Crooks, was not only a visitor to the city—a 28-year-old US navy petty officer 1st class from the USS Doyle—but also the soon-to-be father of a baby girl.
Not surprisingly, the story of his death had media legs, not only in Canada but also in the United States as well.
As if to atone for the sins of its city, the Chronicle-Herald quickly set up a “Damon Crooks Family Fund” to raise money for the child’s upbringing. The fund would eventually raise $60,000. In the legislature, opposition leader Darrell Dexter introduced a motion to express Nova Scotians’ “deepest condolences to the family and friends and shipmates of Damon Crooks…and urge that every step be taken to ensure the safe enjoyment of Nova Scotia port cities by the visitors that we welcome to our shores.” The resolution passed unanimously.
Not to be outdone, Halifax mayor Peter Kelly promised to set up what would become the much-publicized Mayor’s Task Force on Violence in Halifax.
In death, Damon Crooks became larger-than-life. His shipmates claimed his only role in the brawl had been as unlucky good Samaritan—coming to the aid of a sailor friend whose necklace had been ripped from his neck.
“He was a great man, a great person,” his grieving fiancee told CTV News. “He’s really going to be missed.”
If this narrative now had its hero, it also needed a villain.
Corey Wright—initially charged with first degree murder—fit that role perfectly. He’d been arrested within minutes of the stabbing fleeing the scene of the crime. Damon Crooks’ wallet was in his pocket. And he had a history of knife violence.
In 2002, Wright had been convicted of aggravated assault in connection with the stabbing of a man and his girlfriend. Despite the prosecutor’s plea that Wright be locked up for 12 years, the judge sentenced him to just five-and-a-half years, which—thanks to time credited for the period he’d spent in jail before his trial and a positive recommendation from the parole board—meant Wright was on the streets, on parole, when Crooks was murdered.
That, predictably, transformed Corey Wright, described as an “unpredictable psychopath” and a “knife-wielding maniac,”into the poster boy for a justice system run amuck.
Radio talk show host Rick Howe declared Crooks’ killing gave Halifax “an international black eye” and argued the fact that Wright was on the streets at all “highlights what is wrong lately with the justice system.”
“If [the judge] had listened to a crown attorney two-and-a-half years ago,” thundered David Rodenhiser in the Halifax Daily News, “Cory [sic] Wright would still be safely behind bars in a federal penitentiary and Damon Crooks might still be alive and looking forward to the birth of his first child.”
Rodenhiser’s guilty-as-charged diatribe—widely shared—came just three days after Damon Crooks’ murder, one day after Corey Wright’s arraignment, and years before the facts of the case against Wright could be argued in court.
And yet…
Corey Wright was not without his supporters. During his second of many courtroom appearances, the court house filled with family and friends. Some handed out flyers showing a photo of “a beaming [Wright] with a toothy grin…cradling his newborn son” with the words: “Society Please Don’t Condemn A Man To Life Because Of His Past” and “Help An Innocent Black Man Accused By Halifax Police.” Others chanted, “Free Vinny D!” as sheriff’s deputies escorted the shackled Wright from the courtroom.
“He’s innocent,” a family member told reporters. “He said he didn’t do it.” Added a neighbour: “Corey is one of the sweetest guys I have ever known.”
I wouldn’t be this strong if it wasn’t for my moms / Discipline, dedication,determination and honour / This is what she taught me / Same for my stepfather
Corey Wright, named after his biological father, was born in Halifax on April 25, 1983, the middle of Valerie Wright’s three sons. His parents split when he was very young, and he never had a relationship with his father. He was raised instead by his mother. She calls him DeeWan.
“My mother was great,” Wright says from his prison cell today. “Growing up…I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
When he was 15, however, he got into “an altercation with my mother that changed my life.” It was, he admits now, a stupid teenager-thing. That morning, Corey was rushing around, late for school—“I had tests that day in math, in science, an essay due in English, and I always did things last minute”—when he saw his younger brother, Marvin, in the living room. Lounging around. Still in his pajamas.
“Get ready for school,” Corey ordered him.
“I’m not going,” Marvin replied.
“What do you mean, you’re not going?” One thing led to another and “I clipped him in the back of the head. He went all dramatic, crying to my mother and such.”
His mother admonished Corey not to hit his brother.
“Why do you worry about him?” Corey shot back. “You don’t worry about me.”
“As soon as I said it,” he says today, “I knew I was wrong. I hurt her feelings.”
Valerie lashed back, “slapping and hitting me” with little effect.
“I was smiling. I couldn’t help it,” Wright remembers. “But then she’s all, ‘Get out! Get out! Don’t come back!'”
Today, he shakes his head. “It was pride, stupid pride.”
Corey stormed out, didn’t come back.
He ended up couch-surfing. “I had three aunts and two best friends, so that was five couches and I just kept moving…” He stopped going to school. “I started smoking weed but I didn’t have any money.” One morning, one of his best friends showed up at the apartment where he was staying and began “to count his money. I figured he was selling weed, so I says, ‘Let me sell some too.’ And he says, ‘No, I don’t sell weed. I sell crack.’ And I thought, screw it, I’ll try it. I sold crack so I could smoke weed.”
He was 16.
Selling crack cocaine wasn’t just illegal; it was dangerous.
One night in July 2000, one of his best friends, Tyrone Oliver, who’d also allegedly been selling drugs, was gunned down on an outdoor basketball court. After that, Wright, in the words of his parole officer, would “Drink the ‘hard stuff’ and continue to ingest alcohol until he could not drink anymore.”
He was scared, but he wasn’t about to show it.
“I was always a fighter, you know, I was this skinny, short kid, but I loved to fight, especially the bigger guys who picked on the little kids or girls,” Wright says today. “When you’re a teenager, fighting is fun.” It’s less fun when others are carrying guns. “I’d never carry a gun,” Wright insists. “Guns make me nervous. But I got a knife. For protection.”
It was the knife that got him into trouble. In the early morning hours of April 20, 2002, he went to a birthday party at an after-hours spot on Gottingen Street, where he ended up dancing with a woman who turned out to be someone’s girlfriend.
“Why you hitting on my girlfriend?”
“I’m not hitting on your girlfriend.”
Words led to words, and the other guy went outside to get something from his car. “‘Hold on,’ he said to me, ‘I’ll be right back.'” He returned moments later. “I’m trying to leave and he says, ‘I got something for you.’ …I thought he had a gun. I panicked. I pulled out my knife and started swinging.” Wright stabbed the guy 14 times and, when the guy’s girlfriend tried to intervene, he cut her, too. Today, he shakes his head. “He didn’t even have a gun on him.”
Wright pleaded guilty to the assault—“Your lordship,” he told the judge at his sentencing, “I acknowledge what I done wrong, and the weight of my sins is greater than I can bear”—and began, it seemed, to turn his life around.
But I’m gonna rise to the occasion / I’m driven by my ambition
While in jail, Wright earned his GED high school equivalency and enrolled in Second Chance, a one-year program to provide entrepreneurial skills to young people who’d been in “conflict with the law.”
Wright had already launched his own small business, opening up a north end storefront with his mother—with whom he’d reconciled—and one of his brothers. “We’d go out to Costco and buy in bulk—toothpaste, coffee, jerseys—and sell them in the neighbourhood” to people who couldn’t afford transportation to shop themselves.
He and a friend also got into the party promotion business. “We’d pay for the flyers—$40 for 1,000—and organize the shows. The club would get the bar; we’d get the door. We made a lot of money.” But then they got burned in a deal with a San Francisco promoter who was supposed to do in a show in Halifax and didn’t, and Wright and his partner “decided to go our separate ways.”
Wright’s separate way was to begin making his own music. When he was still selling crack, he remembers going to a house party and seeing some kids he’d grown up with performing, pretending to be the gangsters he actually was. “I saw these guys rapping what I’m doing but they weren’t really doing it. They were going to school. They were good kids. So I thought, I’ll give rapping a try. At least I’m doing it.”
Wright ended up at Village Sound, Stephen Outhit’s north end recording studio [Editor’s note: see clarification below]. “He was an exceptionally talented rapper,” Outhit recalls, and he remembers being equally impressed by Wright the person. “He wasn’t a thuggy, peer-pressured kind of guy. He was a smart businessman who’d been born in an unfortunate situation.”
Outhit’s encouragement “put something in me,” Wright acknowledges. “I thought, this guy doesn’t know me and he’s saying I’m good. Maybe I can do this.” He made a CD, got a manager, made plans for a tour. “Two thousand and seven,” Wright says wistfully. “That year was going to be my dream, going to be all music for me.”
And then, on the morning of November 4, 2006, the dream became a nightmare.
Well at least my pain / Is more than a rhyme to me / How can I complain / When he’s doing more time than me
From the beginning, there were questions about what really happened outside Rain that night. Even about what had started it. A fight over a girl? A chain?
Although the circumstantial case against Corey Wright was compelling, even overwhelming—he was caught running from the scene of the crime, with blood on his hands and the victim’s wallet in his possession —there was little hard evidence to connect him to the actual murder. It had happened in the confusing middle of a sprawling brawl involving, by some accounts, more than two dozen participants. Virtually every one of them—not to mention non-combatant witnesses—was intoxicated, their memories fogged, their evidence unreliable. Some, perhaps understandably, weren’t keen to talk to the police.
Within hours of the incident, however, a very different narrative began circulating in the black community. Someone else, also black, had murdered Damon Crooks—and bragged about it. The alleged killer had a well-known fetish for knives and for other people’s gold chains. The night before the murder, or so the story went, the man had stabbed someone else and taken his gold chain. Valerie Wright began compiling affidavits to show her son was not Crooks’ killer. It wasn’t easy. Everyone, it seemed, was scared of the other guy.
According to emails between the crown lawyers and police, detectives knew soon after the murder that “someone else confessed to the murder to a third party.” What police did with that information isn’t clear.
They certainly had the information from several sources. The summer after the murder, for example, Stephen Outhit, the producer who’d befriended Corey, wrote to mayor Kelly expressing his concerns about delays in the case, as well as explaining that he’d been told that someone else—he named the individual—had allegedly confessed to the crime. Kelly wrote back, “essentially thanked me for my letter and said he’d forwarded it to the police,” Outhit explains. “The police never contacted me about it.”
He says he knows several other people contacted Crimestoppers with similar information, but were never contacted either.
The Crown’s case against Corey Wright was no slam dunk. Within months, the crown had reduced his first degree murder charge to second degree, and eventually settled for manslaughter. Wright’s preliminary hearing, which had been scheduled to run for 20 days, lasted only five. The case had dragged on for close to two-and-a-half years when, in March 2009, on the edge of the beginning of his trial, Wright surprised everyone by changing his plea to guilty of manslaughter.
To understand just how big a surprise,not to mention relief, Wright’s plea must have been for prosecutors, it’s instructive to read Justice Felix Cacchione’s written judgment.
“Having reviewed the evidence in this case,” he noted at Wright’s sentencing hearing, addressing his comments to Crooks’ family, “I can say to you with certainty that this case was not an open and shut case of either murder or manslaughter. The crown acknowledged to me the difficulty that it would have in proving the charge as originally laid…. It is very possible that a jury hearing the evidence that the prosecution had available to it could have decided that they either could not decide who did what and hence…been hung as a jury…Or the jury could in all likelihood have had a reasonable doubt that Mr. Wright was the offender who caused Damon Crooks’ death.”
The flimsiness of the crown’s case was not the only surprise on sentencing day. The crown and defence lawyers told the judge they’d agreed on a joint sentencing recommendation: 15 years for manslaughter.
In the complicated ways of the criminal justice system, that meant Wright typically would have been credited with double the time he’d already spent in jail while awaiting trial, reducing his actual sentence to 10 years. And—normally—he would have been entitled to apply for parole after serving just one-third of his sentence, meaning he would have been eligible to apply for parole after roughly three-and-a-half years in prison.
Instead, Cacchione—“mindful of society’s abhorrence of what occurred and the prevalence of these types of activities in our community”—allowed Wright to claim four years of remand time, instead of five, and ordered that “you serve at least half the sentence before you are considered eligible for parole. That means, sir, that on the 11-year sentence you will have to serve five-and-a-half years before you can even apply for parole.”
Lookin’ in the mirror / when I’m all by my lonesome / Pictures getting clearer / Play the cards that I’m holding / Pornographic magazine keeps me with a pin-up / But it’s the pen and pad that keeps me with my chin up / Still unsigned so they think I’m a beginner / But it’s my inner that’s telling me I’m a winner
“Do you mind if I turn on the tape recorder?” I ask. We are sitting in a small windowless room inside the Springhill Institution, the prison where Corey Wright is serving his sentence. It’s the first time I’ve met Wright. But I’ve been following his story almost from the beginning.
As a columnist for the Daily News, I’d written about the media rush-to-judgment after it was revealed that Wright had been on parole at the time of Crooks’ killing. I’d spoken to Outhit, who believed an injustice might have been done, and to Valerie Wright, Corey’s mother, who was his number one and, seemingly, sometimes his only defender. I’d followed the case as it worked its way through the courts.
After Wright’s sentencing, we’d begun an email and letter correspondence. “I really want to share my story, the trials and tribulations I have gone through,” he wrote at one point. “I’ve done a lot of wrong things, but who hasn’t?…I always knew when I was doing wrong, but I am not and was never a bad person…Sorry for talking about my past,” he added, “but everyone new I meet I try to shed light on me as a person. Just because the newspapers and the media painted me out to be something I’m not. Well, anyway, we will talk soon, I hope.”
Now we sit, face to face, both eyeing the tape recorder between us. Wright is a handsome young man with an easy smile, the slight gap between his front teeth making him seem more boyish than his 26 years. The intelligence that’s obvious in his conversation serves as a counterpoint to the muscles he’s been building, lifting weights in prison, and to his tattoos: There’s one on the back of each hand containing the names of each of his two young sons and another on his shoulder that declares he is “my brother’s keeper.”
“It depends,” he says finally. “How honest do you want me to be?” We don’t turn on the tape recorder.
The issue, it turns out, is practical—as was his decision last spring to plead guilty to manslaughter. He hadn’t been impressed by the performance of his lawyer, Warren Zimmer, during the preliminary hearing. “He just took my case for the publicity,” Wright argues. “I’m at the police station [after his arrest] and a cop says to me, ‘You’ve got a call.’ It was Warren. He told me he was going to fight for me. I take people at their word. But we did the preliminary and he wasn’t fighting. Some days he wasn’t even there.”
Which is why, about a month before his trial was scheduled to begin, Wright asked to speak to Zimmer. He’d been thinking about his prospects in court and about what a long stretch in prison could mean to his dream of a music career. “I’ve got a bright future,” he tells me today. “I can feel it. I’m destined for something. Give me a pen and a roll of toilet paper and I can make rhymes… Doesn’t matter where I am. I can do time. But I can’t do forever…
“So I said to him, ‘Honestly Warren, this is my life. Be straight with me. What are my chances?’ And he says, ‘Well, it’s 50–50.’ So a coin toss is going to determine my life. I said, ‘Warren, go to them, get them to drop it to manslaughter…’ And that’s what happened.”
After he went to jail, Wright appealed Cacchione’s decision to reduce his remand credit and force him to serve more time before he would be eligible for parole. Just last month, the appeal court reversed those conditions. Which means Wright can now apply for parole in 2012 instead of 2014.
Which may be one more reason Corey Wright isn’t keen to go on the record, arguing he didn’t kill Damon Crooks. Call it the Donald Marshall, Jr., conundrum. Marshall famously spent 11 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, unable to get parole because he refused to admit his guilt, and therefore, according to the parole board, wasn’t ready to be rehabilitated.
Wright’s situation is different, of course. He did plead guilty to being responsible for Crooks’ death.
But did he really do it?
There are those who remain convinced Corey Wright is innocent.
While Wright answers most of my questions about the events of the night of November 4, 2006, he steers clear of the key question about whether he stabbed Crooks.
“I can’t talk about that,” he tells me.
It would be easy to take from that that Wright is guilty. But he is also—not to put too fine a point on it—someone who understands the justice system well enough to know guilt and innocence often matter less than luck and cunning.
Having been branded for a stabbing he admits he did commit, what were his chances of getting a jury’s benefit of the doubt if he was on trial for something he actually didn’t do? And, if he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison?
Corey Wright would rather not go there. He can do the time he’s been given.
He fills his days working on his rhymes. Whenever he has something ready, he sets up a phone call with James McQuaid, AKA Homegrown, his Halifax-based producer. While Wright raps to the beat of an unrelated song playing from his CD player into his earphones, McQuaid records Wright’s voice over the telephone and later marries it to a beat in his studio.
Wright says his new music is very different from his earlier, more gangsta-inspired raps. “It’s like a different me,” he says. “It’s more party, more chill. I’m now more conscious, more motivational.”
Corey Wright still dreams. Destiny calls. We turn on the recorder. He raps:
You be waiting a long time / If you think I’m going to fade out / Not in this lifetime / Check my lifeline / Known for the gap in my teethAnd writing nice rhymes…
Corey Wright laughs, shows the gap in his teeth.
[Editor’s clarification: Steve Outhit worked at Village Sound, but did not own it, and his association with Corey Wright predates Outhit’s employment at Village Sound.]
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Can we tame Halifax’s mean streets?
Corey Wright’s bars
This article appears in May 6-12, 2010.
Boo fucking hoo.
He got what he deserved.
“On his knees on the sidewalk, he eyed the spoils of battle: scattered wallets, cellphones, watches, even a shoe that had come off in the melee. He grabbed what he could, shoved them in his pockets”
Real upstanding citizen
I had completely forgotten about this until I read the story this morning:
A year ago, up here in the “hood” while chatting about the assault to some of my less savoury acquaintances, I was surprised to find out that on the street it was common knowledge that Wright was not guilty, but that he could not reveal the killer out of duty/fear/loyalty. This , to them, was absolute fact and not a rumour.
Guess what Andrea,
Sometimes someone, gasps, deserves to go to jail.
When asked the simple question of “Did you do it?”, our poor little downtrodden citizen says “”I can’t talk about that.
Guilty as charged
“When he was still selling crack, he remembers going to a house party and seeing some kids he’d grown up with performing, pretending to be the gangsters he actually was. “I saw these guys rapping what I’m doing but they weren’t really doing it. They were going to school. They were good kids. So I thought, I’ll give rapping a try. At least I’m doing it.”
This is exactly what is wrong with promoting “gangsta rap”, everyone thinks that they have to be; selling drugs, going to jail, droping out of school in order to “make it.” I do realize it gives some less fortunate kids a dream, but maybe that’s why the less fortunate is turning to drugs and dropping out of school.
Andrea, if you don’t have the maturity to keep things civilized, just put down your keyboard, and walk away until you loose some of that quaint but childish idealism .. a decade or two might do the trick.
To Luther and the rest of you….let me start by saying that I know this young man and his family. And before i begin be clear that I dont particularly like Corey, but what is right is right. Not one of you should have very much to say not one have walked in the mans shoes. You dont know what its like to grow up not always knowing where your next meal might come from. Or if your hanging with your friends, that a bullet might ring out and take ur life, just for being there. I understand that Corey has not lead a perfect life, but do any of us? Are his sins any larger then ours? We were quick to help the sailors family (dont get me wrong I thnk we were right) but what about his family what about his children that will grow up with out their father….I thought we were innocent until proven guilty? He was considered guilty from the start….and trust me crimestoppers did nothing when told about the other person…….they are suppose to check into all avenues….and they didnt. Where is the justice or is it just for some while the rest of us suffer beacuse we are “guilty”. Pls people dont judge until you know, thats the problem now we talk alot and say nothing
Guilty of selling crack to our kids, he admits it. Guilty of bad rhymes, I admit it. Guilty of murder, unknown. Guilty of harbouring a felon, guilty.
Taunja, when do we start holding people accountable?
The idea that this criminal’s first thought after a fight is ” what can I steal” speaks volumes about him.
And shame on Stephen Kimber, shame!
All of the little digs at the dead man and his crewmates didn’t go unnoticed. A few letters and meetings and Mr. Kimber is sobbing big wet tears for this, frankly, pox on society.
Maybe if the “hood” stopped protecting the ones amongst that prey on us all, I’d have a little more empathy.
Everyone in prison is innocent, just ask them!
Word on the street from Huggy Bear is that the kid is innocent. Good enough for me.
Boo Hoo
When should we expect an expose on the victim and how his kid’s have to grow up without a father?
I remember this happening. I am, however, having a hard time understanding what the story is trying to accomplish.
Educate? Stir dissent? Create controversy? Evoke conspiracy?
We’re human, we’re judgmental, we speculate, that’s what we do, but none of us, me included, can really say if he’s innocent or guilty of murder. We can however look at the presented facts. He lived a questionable period of life, had questionable people for friends and in so got caught up in a questionable situation in which he himself committed questionable acts.
This isn’t the story of someone caught in the wrong place at the wrong time who was hung out to dry and paid the ultimate unjust price to appease legal, political and public conscious.
He made a mistake. A big one. Now he’s paying for it. That’s life, sometimes.
Finally ask yourself, if what you read can be believed, what’s wrong with this picture when everyone knows who the primary guilty party is (the accused, friends, community) and yet do nothing.
“He’s innocent,” a family member told reporters. “He said he didn’t do it.” Added a neighbour: “Corey is one of the sweetest guys I have ever known.”
followed by…
“Wright stabbed the guy 14 times and, when the guy’s girlfriend tried to intervene, he cut her, too.”
Sounds like a sweet guy.
agreed yorkke.lets do an expose on the victims family.or would that be to balanced for these well trained journalists.
fuckoff with identifying the perp as a victim.
If this went through arrest/trial/conviction/sentencing with nobody coming forward he has only his ‘community’ to blame, not ‘the system’.
I’ll give this article a closer read tonight but from what I gather it doesn’t really have a point to it.
yeah i was present that night and know how it happened.
i will say it all could have been avoided had their been an absence of American arrogance. American MILITARY arrogance. period.
is it sad? unfortunate? terrible?
yes
was it more than one person’s fault? could it have been avoided? could the VICTIM have had a different outcome had he and his comerades controlled their egos and acted differently?
u bet your ass.
alcohol and ego is a dangerous mix. the victim didnt get anything he didnt oprder up beforehand.
Free Vinny D, not because he is in jail, but because he is innocent of these charges, regardless of what his history says. i am sure there is something in EVERYONE’S history that would make them look unfavorable if brought to light.
The article is written more like a promo for Wright’s upcoming rap career. A hometown Fitty Cent! Dealing drugs, documented. Put in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, check!
all u idiots that cant read…idk if u seen it say that the guy openly confessed that he did it….to not only his producer but others who have come forward…..so maybe u idiots shuld read…if i was a fkin judge and i had witness’ that came forward saying they heard who ever they said it was did it n not corey….then maybe they shuld look into that person and investigate? coz like they said the media ate this up 2 much n corey was guilty until proven innocent….fkin scrubs learn 2 read before u make an ass of urself……typical haligonians
what are you saying shadows.the guy deserved to lose his life over a fight.because his murderer is to much of a coward to actuallly fight a man 1 on 1.your buddy is a bitch like most shit bags in that scene, they talk all hard, hold up principles such as, discipline and honour,that they do not understand or have any knowledge of,then they make sure they out number their opponents at least 3:1 then they feel secure enough in themselves to take a stand.
fucking useless human filth.cowards with no sense of sacrifice.posers
Yeah, that’s right, a guy is dead and its everybody’s fault except for the guy who killed him.
It wasn’t unfair numbers at all. The Americans were def the agressors. The TRAINED TO FIGHT and KILL agressors. This ONE time it didn’t work out for them. As for what u say, I don’t know, nor have I ever known mr.wright. I happened to be there when it started and later when it escelated.
But l will be fair. Had those American soldiers been not so drunk AND/OR not so cocky about “showin em how u do it right” (a real quote), one of em
wouldn’t be dead. THAT is my point. I love how u assumed I was aligned with a certain side tho.. Open minds here…
My buddy?! This is cute. The assumptions being made are astounding. I didn’t know u were a part of “my scene” enuff to know what we value an honor. It’s like u got that “honor n respect”
thing out of movie or cliche. Just by the way u assumed so much about not only me, but “my scene”, and that night, I can tell u r a waste if time. No open minds here. Some judgemental
prix occassionally tho…
Six. Spoken like a 6 year old. I love how u talk about things u know nothing about.
Poser. Ignorant poser at that.
And out comes the Hard Crowd.
Bull, you weren’t there, shadow. With all your bluster, you are the pouser, not poser.
Your little jailbird pal is a coward, pure and simple.
A man tells the truth, a child…well there’s about 2000 words above that describe it.
And the sailors were carrying knives right? Oh no, just the poor little thing that is in jail getting what he deserves.
Nobody has to believe I was there. I really wish I wasn’t. It is not cool being present when ANY PERSON loses their life. I am not hard. Far from it. Probably why I feel sick when i think of that night. I am not affiliated with either side, tho I spoke for about 10 minutes with one of the soldiers who was actually quite nice. I asked him about what it’s like visiting all these different cities, and asked what he did on his downtime while away. He said “get drunk, chase ass an break noses”. I assumed he was just playin around. I left to go smoke a joint with my friend who lived on barrington in the chives building. When I went back to argyle to meet my buddies the shit was starting. No part of this was cool or not immature foolishness. But the fact REMAINS that the US soldiers were looking to fight. They were talkin throughout the night about their training to do so.
I really don’t care what u say, cuz one thing i know. YOU likely weren’t there. I say likely cuz there WAS 2 other groups of people around that I saw. U coulda been in one of those groups. To be judgemental and say u weren’t for sure? That would be immature and stupid.
A very well written article. It definitely gives you pause to think.
half of u guys are legally retarted im starting to think, get offa ur fucking high horse and take a look at the artical everyone knows who really stabbed him and its not in hiding dudes still out making music selling dope, vinny bit the case for his friend listen to about half way thru the corey storey song thats streamed up there quote on quote ” my right hand man left me in a tight jam was it because the fam stabbed him in his right hand” u guys are fuckin idiots, hes doing the time for someone else ad allmost everyone involved in the nova scotian hip hop community knows that and who did it and id litterly give any of you shit talkin fools a grand for trying to say any of that shit to vinny when he gets parolled next year. but serously what was he gonna do rat his bestfriend out who shoulda came forward naww he bit that case like a man and just took the charge and is now serving time up the hill for his boy, how many other people u know that would give up 6 or 7 years of there life for there fiend…..some of you people are so fucking stupid take a hinttttt
FREE VINNY D N MUTHAFUCK V.A
stupid ass wallllllysssss
he serves that long for a friend, that let him serve that time.some good friend.wish i had some stand up friends like that.
what a good citizen allowing a murderer to continue to walk the streets.shows you where his priorities are.
he is loyal to a murderer,crack dealer, that betrayed him,is that what you are saying.because to me that shows some highly intelligent rational skills.putting innocent peoples lives at risk because of some lower evolved street mentality.fuck the risk to innocent people,eh,what matters is not being a rat.you are a fucking idiot.no wonder you are where you are.
Looks like the Coast can add another demographic to to their readership when shopping around for advertising….please keep the American Apparel account, though. Thanks.
Cranky is a crusty fruitcake. Ass. I bet u wear that shit too. The racism in hali shouldn’t shock me, after all there’s a fuckin statue of Cornwallis here. I am
guessin a hitler statue is next, u know, to thank the Germans for the bridges.
And out comes the “old poor me” crowd.
Is the “man” holding you back?
I think the community should look inside itself before casting stones at the rest.
A hooligan got what he deserved and all the wannabe and neverwills cry and strut on the edges of society.
Oh and the Cornwallis statue, we obviously get your history from little sound-bites.
Yep, definitely a promo piece for his rap career, especially now considering we’ve got some real thugs commenting on the article.
“FREE VINNY D N MUTHAFUCK V.A”
Hilarious.
If he was not guilty, why did he settle the case out of court? Oh wait… he’s either protecting a bigger criminal, or getting cred for his rap career.
Free him! He’s innocent not only to those on the street BUT the Crowns case is weak with NO evidence on him. He’s SOLID as a rock NOT snitchin’ on who REALLY DID IT! Squizzy! Straight up! Now be ready to compensate him when you find out who REALLY did it! All that time inside for something you didn’t do! Donald Marshall all over again. Bullshit! Free Vinny D.
well dr.fever many if you looked at that one line a little bit harder u could figure some shit out yea the one u quoted me on?, but do ya really think his “rap career” is whats on his mind, what about his 2 small children he hasent seen in how long. some of you people have your head shoved so far up ur ass its not funny….
“He’s SOLID as a rock NOT snitchin’ on who REALLY DID IT!”
In my mind he should get double the time.
I really think that his kids are ancillary. If he was really concerned about his kids, he would have done everything he could not to go to jail, including not pleading guilty. If it is as everyone says, and the case was weak, he should have fought it. Or, was he afraid that the jury would have found him guilty, and he would have gotten a longer sentence?
Every rapper needs to have a back story. Nobody wants a well to do rapper. Like meyou said, he’ll get compensated for being “wrongfully” convicted, which he’ll take to a producer, cut a record. He’s living the life to get cred.
Besides, he plead guilty. So, he’s either protecting someone who actually did the deed, or he did it himself. If the community wants to protect the guy who killed the guy, well, then the community needs to step up and put it to light. If he went to jail to protect this person, then he went to jail for the wrong reasons. But, that doesn’t mean he gets to be let off. We live in a society of laws, not a society of we get to pick and choose what laws we want to follow. People wonder why the police either give up or over scrutinize an area… If the community pushes back, then police push back harder.
But hey, it’s just so easy to cry racism and prejudice nowadays.
Sounds like a simple case of collusion. When two guys admit to the crime, you can’t convict either because there’s always reasonable doubt. Unless you choose to ignore one of them. This is what the prosecution did, and now Corey is paying the price for confessing to a crime (remember, he did plead guilty in court).
Corey seems to have some eyewitnesses that can testify to his innocence, and the “other guy” seems like a prime suspect. But if these two are really close friends, a manslaughter charge means far less prison time than a murder charge, and Corey will be out soon enough to collect his debt. It’s a hell of a favour he’s doing his friend, basically taking a few years in prison to save his friend from a LOT more. Must be something good waiting for him on the outside…aside from the shot in the arm for his rap career.
So maybe he didn’t do it, but I have absolutely zero sympathy for him. If Corey wanted to do the right thing, he would have told the police about this violent, chain-snatching murderer and justice would have been served. If he presented the truth and fought the charge and was convicted anyway, then I would feel for the guy. But I get the impression that this was what he wanted.
So “Free Vinny D?” That’s probably the last thing “Vinny D” wants, because then the case into “other guy” opens up and “other guy” goes to jail for murder, and what was the point?
All in all, boo fucking hoo. Wrongful conviction my left nut. You reap what you sow. And who cares, he’ll be out in no time, back to do doing productive things like writing rhymes about killing, and selling crack.
yea scotia -poppin that’s it he did it for his kids … talk about head in ass
I was acquainted with Corey and had the chance to hang out with him a little shortly before all this went down. A couple of my best friends were there that night, so I’m close to this whole thing, but far enough away to be able to see the forest for the trees. Like so many other people, I’ve heard second-hand from the very beginning who really killed Damon Crooks. I’ve asked myself: If I had been a witness to it all, and was in a position to testify against the real murderer, would I? This is not an easy question I’m afraid. Is it worth my life and the impact my murder would have on my loved ones just to try and put someone in jail who the police aren’t even considering a suspect? It’s easy to say that failing to come forward as a witness makes someone a coward, but it’s not simple cowardice to care enough about your loved ones to wish that they not be subjected to losing you, especially when you’re facing an uphill battle because the cops aren’t on the same page, having someone they like as a suspect already, and being totally uninterested in trying to convict the real killer.
As for Corey, whether it matters to the case or not, he really is a nice guy. When I knew him the last thing he was looking for was trouble. The sailors who showed up at the club, on the other hand, by all accounts were doing just that in our city on the night in question. I do not, by any means, believe that everybody who ever starts or enters a fistfight deserves to die; if that were the case most men wouldn’t be here. But we are all responsible for our own actions, and any grown man or woman who chooses violence, whether as a form of entertainment, or stress relief, or conflict resolution, or whatever, takes the risk that they may end up beat up, shot up, or stabbed up, and die. That’s why no one should choose to be violent any time for any reason except in certain extreme rare circumstances of self preservation. You never know who you’re messing with until it’s too late.
As for Damon Crooks’ child and loved ones; it’s always sad when any child must grow up fatherless, whether it’s because he’s been murdered, or put in jail for murder, the human tragedy that results is the same for that child and I wish it didn’t have to be that way for anyone.
Should Corey be free? I can’t answer that. He made his choice to plead guilty, but sometimes in life you’re given choices that come with the condition of being damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Do you give up someone who’s part of your social group and who could easily come and kill you next, only to risk a conviction on a higher crime and end up with an even worse sentence than you would have otherwise faced, when the police themselves aren’t interested in prosecuting anyone else? OR… Do you take the plea and go to prison for something you didn’t do? That’s not a choice; it’s a lose-lose situation and no matter what you pick you’re damned. Jail time ends, but there’s no parole from death. And if you do snitch, and by some miracle they manage to convict the real killer, then you’re likely to end up shunned by your entire social group, and there’s no parole from that either, and losing all your friends can be worse than death or jail for some people.
One thing is clear: Corey did not kill Damon Crooks, and dozens, maybe hundreds of people know who really did. It’s not Corey’s responsibility to prosecute that person. It’s the job of the Crown and the police to create and prove a case against the person who actually committed any crime, and it really bothers me that none of those people were the least bit interested in doing that in this case. Someone needed to be hung for this and it didn’t matter who. Corey and my friends shouldn’t have to risk theirs and their family’s lives to prosecute and convict the real murderer on their own; the police should have done that and they failed. Corey may not be a hero, but if there’s a villain in this story I can’t decide whether it’s the real killer or all the law enforcement professionals who made the choice not to pursue him. The saddest, scariest part of this all, to me as a citizen of this city and this great country, is how little it seems to matter who’s really guilty of this murder. All that matters to law enforcement is who they can pin it on, because once a conviction is achieved, they’re off the hook, and life goes on no matter who’s in jail and who’s on the streets. I haven’t read the article Andrea referred to: ‘Manufacturing Guilt: wrongful convictions in Canada,’ but to me that sounds like a way bigger threat to all of us all than one guy with a knife any day of the week.
Thanks for reading.
TheBatman well thought out.good comment, it made me think.
Give me a break Batman.
If “Jail time ends, but there’s no parole from death. And if you do snitch, and by some miracle they manage to convict the real killer, then you’re likely to end up shunned by your entire social group, and there’s no parole from that either, and losing all your friends can be worse than death or jail for some people.”
If hundreds of people know, and the community bands together, the “real killer” is caught.
If not, then the community in which he lives is rotten, the people are rotten, and I pity their children and social services should get involved.
And bullshit on trying to paint the sailors as the villian; this hoodlum or his close friend brought a knife to the club. He admits to a previous stabbing, and he carries a knife.
Why would they bring a knife if they weren’t looking for trouble?
And if all you know the name of the “real killer”, call Kimber and tell him it.
If not, you’re lying and shut up.
btw, the street and club must have been overflowing with the number of “witnesses” coming forward.
To Luthor:
First, you’re claim that “If hundreds of people know, and the community bands together, the “real killer” is caught,” is extremely naive. The criminal justice system (the Crown) prosecutes crime, not “the community” and anyone who’s had any experience with that system will tell you the same thing; it doesn’t matter who actually did what, or who actually knows what, it matters who’s willing to testify, who’s willing to prosecute and whether or not they can get a conviction to close a case with the evidence, period. The truth may have little or no bearing. You clearly have no experience with the reality of the criminal justice system.
Second, your comment “the street and club must have been overflowing with the number of ‘witnesses'” ignores the fact, presented in the article, that everyone present that night was drunk and even if they weren’t the murder took place amidst a massive brawl where it would have been nearly impossible for anyone to see anything other than the fists hitting their face. There were a lot of sailors there, notice how none of them were able to identify Crooks’ killer and testify. Your take on this further leads me to believe that you have little or no experience with violence on this scale.
Third, it’s really easy to sit back safely behind a keyboard and say that myself and all the other people who know the truth should come forward, but I guarantee that if it meant the difference between your life and death you would suddenly learn to “shut up” yourself. And if you really read the article with any level of intelligent reflection you would have realized that the author knows the name of the real killer just like the rest of us, but he can’t say it because that would be libel and he could be sued (or targeted for violence himself). And even if Kimber, or myself, or a hundred people all came out to name him, that would do nothing. See my first point for what is required to convict someone in the criminal justice system to understand why.
You make your assertions from a position of little experience and lots of prejudice. You are probably young and/or privileged, but either way you’re definitely ignorant. “Why would they bring a knife if they weren’t looking for trouble?” For protection and self-defence, that’s why. For some people life is not taken for granted, you can get robbed, or stabbed, or shot any time, especially in certain places, and the people that have to live and grow up in those places eventually learn to take care of themselves in any way they need to. Social Services can’t take every underprivileged child in the country and move them to magical places where they’ll be safe from reality. You have obviously never been jumped or robbed. After you’ve been victimized your perspective changes, and maybe you start doing things to protect yourself, like carrying a knife. And regardless of the intention of the person who brought the knife, Corey has never been shown to be that person. In other words there’s never been any proof that he had a knife at all on the night in question.
As for painting “the sailors as the villian;” first, you misspelled villain, second, you failed to read my answer with any coherence just as completely as you failed to read the article itself with that faculty. I never said anything about the soldiers being villains. I DID, however, say that by choosing to enter a physical confrontation they risked having it escalate to something more than a simple fistfight, just like anyone who gets in a fight does. I also said that not everyone who fights deserves to get stabbed; just that they RISK it. Sailors are known to land in ports looking to get drunk and fistfight. And that may be a stereotype, sure, but Shadow told a pretty convincing side of the story that made it sound like they were there to do just that, and the people I know who were there that night indicated something similar. Shadow seemed very unbiased, admitting that he chatted with one of the sailors and found him to be an okay guy, but an okay who was just one of a group of guys perfectly happy to get in and even to initiate a brawl and “break noses” as he put it. BOTH sides of this brawl were at fault, but that doesn’t mean that every member of the mob made that same choice. Damon Crooks may not have wanted this brawl to happen any more than Corey Wright did, but there had to have people on both sides who instigated this thing or it never would have gone on the way it did. Like many people, I truly wish it had never happened at all.
To The Real L:
Your position represents the most disgusting right-wing bigotry I’ve ever encountered in a real person. You are a neo-nazi and you need real help. I never would have expected anyone in this city to be so horribly misguided. You too must be incredibly ignorant. You are one step away from saying we should eat the poor. The idea that everyone who’s involved in criminal activity should be “purged” is laughable in its ridiculousness and terrifying in its implication. People with a criminal mindset often need help, such as counselling, to break them out of their unhealthy mental patterns. You too are in need of this type of help. While I agree with you that the rest of us should be able to walk the streets safely and not have to suffer at the hands of the violent and the criminal, your answer that we should ‘kill ’em all’ is obviously flawed on an essential level. Most crimes are the result of other social ills like drug prevalence and abject poverty. Criminals are often the victims of horrific crimes, like abuse and starvation. No one is born bad. With immature and unintelligent responses such as yours, don’t be surprised if I can’t bother to reply to this any further. No one will take you seriously if you go on raving like that. Your ideas are what needs to be purged and I hate the thought that someone so bigoted is out there in my city breathing my air.
A lot of people who know him feel that Corey is an overall good guy, myself included. He’s not some hardened criminal mastermind, or evil demon, he’s just a normal guy like me and you. I don’t believe it’s okay to sell hard drugs and I believe we all have a responsibility to educate ourselves and do more positive things in this world than that, but that’s neither here nor there.
I refuse to take a position on whether or not he should be free, however he is in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, right or wrong, and that is a miscarriage of justice, which is more of a danger to society than any brawl no matter who gets killed. I shouldn’t have to worry that I’ll be beaten or stabbed in downtown Halifax on a Friday night, but I shouldn’t have to be worried I’ll be imprisoned for years for something I didn’t do either.
I never said Corey was “innocent.” I know he’s far from innocent. I just said he didn’t kill Damon Crooks.
From the Spelling King Batman,
“The sailors who showed up at the club, on the other hand, by all accounts were doing just that in our city on the night in question.”
and then
“Sailors are known to land in ports looking to get drunk and fistfight. And that may be a stereotype, sure, but Shadow told a pretty convincing side of the story that made it sound like they were there to do just that, and the people I know who were there that night indicated something similar. “
Are you so dense that you don’t see what you are doing there. Let me paraphtrase it for you:
“Rappers are known to go to bars looking to get stab people and steal gold chains. And that may be a stereotype, sure, but a person I know nothing about told a pretty convincing side of the story that made it sound like they were there to do just that, and the people I know who were there that night indicated something similar. “
There ya go.
As well
“And regardless of the intention of the person who brought the knife, Corey has never been shown to be that person. “
Oh sorry he only got all stabby that one time.
He is a thug, a crook, and a terrible father.
And for the experiences I have had in life, how many riots have you been in, and in how many different countries?
Yeah I thought so.
Thanks Luthor. But the computer I was using when I commented was slow and took me to a cached version of the page that didn’t have my comment on it, so I posted it again because I thought it hadn’t worked the first time, but way to stay on topic.
You are dense
Remember this post
“first, you misspelled villain”
Now I would do the “kitchen vessel meet colour” comment, but we all know how you would react
As for your response and your ‘paraphrasing’ of what I said, I respect the fact that you’ve attacked my stereotyping of the sailors, and you’re right, not everyone there was necessarily just looking for a good time on either side of the violence, but you forget that I already admitted both of those facts in my responses. I know not all sailors at all bars are looking for fights, just like, if you’re intelligent at all, you know not all rappers at all bars are looking to steal chains and stab people. The issue here is whether Corey killed Crooks. And he didn’t. Period.
Just because someone steals something at one time in their life, doesn’t mean they are to be held responsible for every theft that takes place close to them from then on, that’s why many judges refuse to allow past crimes to be admitted into evidence at trials; the past doesn’t prove the present, but knowledge of it can taint judgement, as it has in this case. Corey did stab one man at one time, and that’s why it was so easy to stick the Crooks killing on him.
As for me. Sadly I HAVE had a great deal of experience with violence, including “brawls,” and I know firsthand what it’s like to be in the middle of that kind of melee. I have also travelled outside this country. But this isn’t about me, and even if I hadn’t had those experiences it has no bearing on the relative truth of my argument.
I really don’t care if you hate black people, or rap music, or whatever ignorant foolishness is floating around in that right-wing head of yours Luthor. All I’m concerned about here is whether or not our criminal justice system is doing the job it has been set up to do. Putting Corey away for this crime is a clear miscarriage of justice and everyone knows it. Whether or not he was a criminal beforehand is irrelevent. His parenting skills are none of your concern. No one should lose their freedom unjustly. The fact that he may have plead guilty, or stabbed someone years before the incident, or stole a dead man’s wallet, only clouds the core issue; that he was wrongly accused, and that law inforcement were willfully blind to the identy of the true murderer.
Corey may not deserve a medal, but he didn’t deserve what he got.
Calling me dense and ranting about spelling just proves that your argument has run out of steam and that my response has gotten under your skin because you know I’m right.
You can’t possibly support convictions of individuals for crimes they have not committed. Move on with your life.
Go pick a fight at another website. You’re clearly not at a high enough intellectual developmental level to be able to continue this debate in a meaningful way and I have better things to do than keep this up right now.
I really hope you will wake up and realize what this is really about.
Best regards,
-The Batman
I was acquainted with Corey and had the chance to hang out with him a little shortly before all this went down. A couple of my best friends were there that night, so I’m close to this whole thing, but far enough away to be able to see the forest for the trees. Like so many other people, I’ve heard second-hand from the very beginning who really killed Damon Crooks. I’ve asked myself: If I had been a witness to it all, and was in a position to testify against the real murderer, would I? This is not an easy question I’m afraid. Is it worth my life and the impact my murder would have on my loved ones just to try and put someone in jail who the police aren’t even considering a suspect? It’s easy to say that failing to come forward as a witness makes someone a coward, but it’s not simple cowardice to care enough about your loved ones to wish that they not be subjected to losing you, especially when you’re facing an uphill battle because the cops aren’t on the same page, having someone they like as a suspect already, and being totally uninterested in trying to convict the real killer.
As for Corey, whether it matters to the case or not, he really is a nice guy. When I knew him the last thing he was looking for was trouble. The sailors who showed up at the club, on the other hand, by all accounts were doing just that in our city on the night in question. I do not, by any means, believe that everybody who ever starts or enters a fistfight deserves to die; if that were the case most men wouldn’t be here. But we are all responsible for our own actions, and any grown man or woman who chooses violence, whether as a form of entertainment, or stress relief, or conflict resolution, or whatever, takes the risk that they may end up beat up, shot up, or stabbed up, and die. That’s why no one should choose to be violent any time for any reason except in certain extreme rare circumstances of self preservation. You never know who you’re messing with until it’s too late.
As for Damon Crooks’ child and loved ones; it’s always sad when any child must grow up fatherless, whether it’s because he’s been murdered, or put in jail for murder, the human tragedy that results is the same for that child and I wish it didn’t have to be that way for anyone.
Should Corey be free? I can’t answer that. He made his choice to plead guilty, but sometimes in life you’re given choices that come with the condition of being damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Do you give up someone who’s part of your social group and who could easily come and kill you next, only to risk a conviction on a higher crime and end up with an even worse sentence than you would have otherwise faced, when the police themselves aren’t interested in prosecuting anyone else? OR… Do you take the plea and go to prison for something you didn’t do? That’s not a choice; it’s a lose-lose situation and no matter what you pick you’re damned. Jail time ends, but there’s no parole from death. And if you do snitch, and by some miracle they manage to convict the real killer, then you’re likely to end up shunned by your entire social group, and there’s no parole from that either, and losing all your friends can be worse than death or jail for some people.
One thing is clear: Corey did not kill Damon Crooks, and dozens, maybe hundreds of people know who really did. It’s not Corey’s responsibility to prosecute that person. It’s the job of the Crown and the police to create and prove a case against the person who actually committed any crime, and it really bothers me that none of those people were the least bit interested in doing that in this case. Someone needed to be hung for this and it didn’t matter who. Corey and my friends shouldn’t have to risk theirs and their family’s lives to prosecute and convict the real murderer on their own; the police should have done that and they failed. Corey may not be a hero, but if there’s a villain in this story I can’t decide whether it’s the real killer or all the law enforcement professionals who made the choice not to pursue him. The saddest, scariest part of this all, to me as a citizen of this city and this great country, is how little it seems to matter who’s really guilty of this murder. All that matters to law enforcement is who they can pin it on, because once a conviction is achieved, they’re off the hook, and life goes on no matter who’s in jail and who’s on the streets. I haven’t read the article Andrea referred to: ‘Manufacturing Guilt: wrongful convictions in Canada,’ but to me that sounds like a way bigger threat to all of us all than one guy with a knife any day of the week.
Thanks for reading.
(Posted again on pupose for those who missed it the first time)
From what I have heard in the “streets” is that he didn’t do it… so he is doing time for whoever really did it.. It’s a shame that he’s in there for something he didn’t do but unfortunately if you don’t rat on the person who is guilty and you’re taking one for the team, no judge, crown, whoever is going to set you free when you plea guilty to something and aren’t calling names & signing statements. I can’t understand why he’s calling on media or even telling his story when he made the decision to take the charge….
Batman, you were the one that started pointing out spelling errors.
And I’m sure everyone who doesn’t know how to use a scroll button appreciates you posting the same thing over and over again.
You are the one with the twisted view of the justice system, that the guilty deserve more protection than the victims.
The criminal admitted his guilt, and a fantasy of him being a “stand-up” guy fighting for justice makes me sick.
Rubin Carter, who had the immense pleasure of dining with, he ain’t…
Wow, some justice system!
Always go with the truth.
Truth is everything.
No scheming, deceiving, scenario analysis, what-ifs, or bullshit.
It’s so easy too.
Truth rules.
From the Herald
“Nick Pace, 19, of Truro pleaded guilty last month to aggravated assault and possession of a weapon in the March 29, 2009 attack which Associate Chief Judge Brian Gibson described as “senseless, brutal and unprovoked.””
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Metro/1181289…
FREE NICKY P! FREE NICKY P!
So why did he plead guilty? If the case was as flimsy as they say, then he would have been acquitted and let go. It is that simple. As for the real “killer”? The police would have had to further investigate and collect evidence. Since the “hood” is afraid to say anything, then the police wouldn’t get anything, the case remains unsolved, and everyone could live happily ever after.
BTW Shadows they were sailors not soldiers.
But, but Bro Tim!
The “system” and “the man” wouldn’t give a disadvantaged individual who previously tried to stab a man to death, was in the brawl, stole the dead man’s wallet, and pleaded guilty a fair trial!
In fact we should be giving the poor man a settlement, and he should headline the next Natal Day concert! Just remind me not to wear a gold chain…
And by the tone of the article, you can tell that Mr. Kimber was busier lining up a new book with a downtrodden hero than really looking at the facts.
The sailor that died wasn’t a hero, and no one ever made him out to be one. He was simply a man who was killed by a low-life thug, with a family that forever miss him.
I especially like Kimber’s ” collective guilt” line.
Pathetic.
Hey, I just thought of something.
If in fact all these commentators state that they know the identity of the real killer, and they will not reveal it, I think it is obstruction of justice.
Hmmmm, time to go to a judge and get their identities, don’t ya think?
The article is a low-point in the history of journalism at The Coast, a local magazine with many high points giving us alternative angles on issues the mainstream press chooses to ignore or just white-washes. You can’t hit ’em out of the park every time.
Kimber should interview Larry Finck next, he’s another loser who is being beat down by The Man.
But remember, Stephen Kimber is a respected member of the faculty of King’s University School of Journalism and he would never ever jade or slant the truth for his own purposes.
The writer of this article is an idiot, i’ve lived in rough areas, doesn’t give me the right to go around shanking people. Stephen Kimber, you know nothing of the streets or it’s code, this Corey guy is a coward and a bitch, no “hard evidence”, nahh, just the mans wallet and blood on his hands and a slash on the victims girlfriend. The Coast is a joke for putting this article as it’s headline…
p.s – Mr.Wright, your rhymes are weak.
If he wants to go to Jail for a crime he didn’t commit, then let him. If he thinks hes getting street credit to build his rap empire upon, than the joke is on him. There is only a few other thousand idiots doing the same thing.
i am surprised that nobody has mentioned that the police are protecting the actual killer… people have called and provided them with the name of that person, who they refuse to even look into… hmmmm i wonder if he could possibly be an informant.. oh maybe thats why they dont wanna look into it cuz they know their informant would end up in jail if any info leaked and then they would lose important information… the police couldnt bail their precious rat outta this high profile case like they can all the rest of the little charges he might rack up… nobody is questioning why the police arent looking into SO many people pointing the finger at the same person??? does this make sense??? how did this guy not even get questioned…. nice police force we have here in halifax… just wanna protect the criminals who will rat out their friends and in the process are willing to knowlingly send an innocent man to jail.
and everyone is saying that since he pled guilty its his own fault he is where he is.. well corey seemed to be doomed in the beginning.. it was an easy pin by the cops in an effort to protect their own (which i find to be totally obvious)… corey would have been convicted on the circumstancial evidence, because the cops wanted an easy target and would do anything for someone to be found guilty in an effort to protect a scum bag. what better target than someone they found at the scene who actually has a comparable record! score on their part… shitty luck for corey…
you people who think its so easy for people to rat others out obviously dont come from the same world i do…. and before the assumptions start.. i didnt grow up in the hood nor do i live there now. i am just a regular person who happens to know a lot of people… and you self-absorbed assholes need to stop talkin like u know what its like to live the life… i’d like to see your comments if you had grown up with few options… think they would be the same? i think not.. why is our world filled with close-minded people?
our justice system seems to, on more than just this occasion, find easy targets in convicted criminals… do you think a doctor or a lawyer or anyone other than a young black rapper with a record involving weapons would have had the same outcome? anyone can be thrown into a fight and although it was a bad choice on corey’s part… this is LIFE for some of us. get that through your thick skulls… not everyone lives in a perfect world. and since when do we believe that people dont change…
corey had the choice of taking the sentence he did, while he could, or facing trial, where the outcome didnt look too great, since the police refused to do anything but try to sink corey for something they KNEW he didnt do. instead of talkin about what a terrible person corey is just cuz he was even there or grabbed a wallet or whatever stupid reason you’re using… why dont we talk about the individuals we trust to police our community… they are all crooked if you ask me (and i am NOT a criminal for those of you ready to jump on me) and how can we trust a group of individuals to keep our city safe when they choose which criminals to protect and which to build false cases around… just because they are an easy out. can you trust these assholes to protect you when they just choose who they want to protect regardless of laws or morals????
Yeah, it is the cops’ fault….as always.
How about this
Even if little Corey did not kill the sailor, how about the fact that he should have still been in prison for attempted murder on the man he stabbed 14 times?
He is going to get parole for this killing in 2012, he tried to kill the other man in 2002, so let’s say 10 years for attempted murder. I don’t think that is too harsh.
Stephen Kimber your the man. Glad to see the Coast is a free speech newspaper. I am a reader who likes the real news, not the news that hides all the dirty little secrets. We need more men in the media like Stephen Kimber, Michael Moore, etc. who arent afraid to speak the truth and step on a few toes if thats what needs to be done to get the truth out. And its not about blame, its about having the freedom to communicate through the media and working together from there. I usually listen to kpfa.org or democracynow.org to hear free speech news and I will be looking forward to reading more articles from my own local newspaper, The Coast. Thanks Stephen.
Sorry, I need to follow bitches’ logic.
1) Corey is in jail because he won’t snitch.
2) He won’t snitch because great harm will befall him
3) Everyone in the “hood” knows who the real killer is.
4) The real killer is a snitch.
5) Who can finish this logic chain?
For extra points, predict the next theory that will be used to claim his innocence.
Next it will be the Mayor in a chicken suit who did it, but he’s being protected by the “man”.
Michael Moore telling it like it is? Ha, good one.
He plead guilty – the end. I doubt the plea was a result of someone holding a lit candle under his bag until he confessed. Next time he should understand the concept of pleading not guilty.
Its like a bad episode of Law&Order: Criminal Intent.
http://newmail.monsterserve.com/keepout/tv…
It says in the article that on April. 20 2002, Corey stabbed a guy and his girlfriend over a dance…… NOPE!!!!! The Coast should get their stories straight…… corey stabbed the guy because the guy wanted the party to end, that made Corey mad….. he stabbed that man over 13 times and when the guys girlfriend tryed to step-in, Corey stabbed her too!!!!!!
I find it crazy that the coast would waste its time on this, and I think that they should ask some of the victims of Corey their stories!!!!
Maybe you shouldn’t have a dead man’s wallet in your pocket if you don’t want to be blamed? Dumbass.
thanks luther…. u didnt say the same in ur old posts… did my logic make u think twice???
bitches “thanks luthor”
I don’t think you understood my post…
Most of the information cited by Mr. Kimber is public knowledge, this combined with Mr. Wright’s account of what happened and his lyrics, I believe Mr. Wright might very well be another Donald Marshall, Jr., a man imprisoned for a crime he did not commit.
Donald Marshall didn’t have a history of stabbing people and wasn’t a scumbag like this Corey fellow. Chew on that M. Raymond Shepherd. Anyone wanna bet if he wasn’t in jail for this he would stab someone later anyways? Can’t change the spots on a shit leopard!
The fact that people actually compare Mr. Wright to Donald Marshall is absolutely laughable.
“The fact that people actually compare Mr. Wright to Donald Marshall is absolutely laughable.”
More like Ghandi, but with extra stabbiness!
What about his cell? It’s all pimped out. Since when do murderers get N64s?
Poor people would probably have a better life in jail.
Betcha he’s probably playing some “stab a guy outside a bar” game on the N64, practicing just so he doesn’t leave as much of a mess outside next time.
Let him share the same cell with that other innocent man Omar Khadr.
What Right Do Any Of You Have Speakin About Corey Like That?? If Anyone Of You Haters On Here Even Knew Who He Was None Of Yas Would Never Say Nothin Wrong About Him… We Don’t Even Care What U Have To Say About Him Cause His True People Knows What’s Up Anyways… We Know He’s Innocent We Don’t Have To Prove It… It’s Already Been Proven Just Up To Them Punk Ass PIGS To Do Something About It Now… SO FUCK YA’LL WHO DOUBT HIM… CAUSE WE BEHIND HIM 100%!!! FUCK YOU HATERS!!!
Free Vinny D!!!!
Dynamite169 needs to understand that Corey Wright plead guilty – it was his own decision. His other choice was to let the case go to trial and hope the “truth” you claim to know would come out. It’s not our fault that his crowd (or your crowd) can’t stand up for themselves but something tells me his life is better is prison, the public is safer and his track record says he’ll be locked up again in no time once released, making it safer for the public once again.
I think you’re right VOR. Also, if it ever went to trial, it would have ended up convicted by a jury of his peers, just because his community is too busy protecting the “real” killer.
If the case is that the “real” killer is in the community and is protecting him, well the community needs to come out and stop protecting this individual.
It’s just like Mr. Luthor said, the community is rotten for letting him go to jail, yet they want him out. You can’t have it both ways. It seems like the community is “Manufacturing Innocence” in the spirit in everyone invoking the Donald Marshall case.
Hey Dynamite – you say “…It’s Already Been Proven Just Up To Them Punk Ass PIGS To Do Something About It Now…” and thats where you are wrong.
The cops and legal system would be doing something about it if he hadn’t plead guilty or at least tried to recant his guilty plea, but his decision to cry foul has come too late. You don’t plead guilty, get sentenced then claim you didn’t do it – you do that in front of the judge as things get rolling along. The fact that the community (and that includes you and Corey) isn’t willing to expose the alleged real killer means he deserves the sentence he got and I really wish the courts would take a heavy-handed approach when people’s silence could be letting a murderer walk the streets.
But that’s Corey’s problem now isn’t it? He voluntarily plead guilty to the charge so he can sleep in the bed he made.
What I think is “Punk-Ass” are the cowards who won’t reveal the real killer.
And a killer who goes all soft and squishy and squeaks ” I didn’t do it”
None of the people speaking out against Corey repeatedly here acknowledge:
A) That nothing any members of “the community” could do would create a case against the killer because he got away clean, with only hearsay evidence against him. No effort has been made by law enforcement to apprehend that person, and with Corey convicted of it none WILL be made. If the cops and the crown didn’t want to hear about who did it when the case was still open because they already had a case against Corey, then they REALLY don’t want to hear about it now that it’s closed. So stop being ignorant.
B) Almost no one speaking out on the side of Corey is saying that he’s an angel, or that “the man” is keeping him down, or that all violent offenders should be let out, or whatever other nonsense you keep spouting. Instead, what’s crucial here is that the justice system failed in a HUGE way and that’s very scary and should not go by unnoticed. As soon as police were notified that there was another suspect in this case they should have attempted to obtain evidence, like a taped confession using a wiretap, or the murder weapon and so on. Hanging it on Corey was the easy (lazy) way out for law enforcement here. Why make a DIFFICULT case against the real killer, with no evidence and only some vague reports from people that the real killer bragged about it, when they already have an EASY case against someone else. Answer: BECAUSE IT’S THEIR JOB TO CONVICT THE GUILTY and they failed, because it would have been hard. Period.
When police and prosecutors would rather lock up someone who’s not guilty than put in the work and efforts needed to make a case against the real perpetrator that’s NOT GOOD. And if Luthor and all you other bigots were arrested and charged with something you didn’t do, facing circumstantial evidence that could potentially convict you, or a plea that could lighten your sentence, you’d change your tune FAST. I’d like to think I’d have the guts to plead not guilty in that situation, but until you actually face the possibility of serious jail time, you’ll never know how that feels, and once you do feel that hopelessness, taking a plea might be something you choose, despite your principles, just to spare yourself and your loved ones even more grief from you being locked up even longer.
Dynamite is 100% right, if somewhat ineloquent. Anybody who really knew Corey would tell you the same thing; he’s not a bad guy at all. If he were freed he wouldn’t be a danger to anyone.
You can argue that the streets are safer with Corey locked up, but you’re wrong because his imprisonment is only IN PLACE OF THE TRUE PERPETRATOR and that person, wherever he may be, represents much more of a threat to you poor cowering citizens than Corey ever could. And the army of keen-to-convict law enforcement who are willing to go deaf and blind to reality when it means they might have an open case sit there like a wound on their records; they are more of a threat to you and your livelihood than any lone “thug.”
Maybe Corey deserves jail time for other crimes. Maybe he deserves it just because he wouldn’t take the risk of pleading not guilty in the face of a false charge, but no matter what Corey deserves, every taxpaying law abiding citizen, even ignorant loud-mouthed right-wing bigots like Luthor, deserve better than this type of behaviour from our public servants.
Corey Wright is not guilty of this crime, and that is a relevant grievance for which law enforcement alone must answer.
The Batman – you think the public would be safe with Corey on the street?? He already admitted to and served time for stabbing someone else. That makes him a dangerous person.
And in the article Corey refuses to even say he didn’t do it when asked by the reporter: “While Wright answers most of my questions about the events of the night of November 4, 2006, he steers clear of the key question about whether he stabbed Crooks. “I can’t talk about that,” he tells me.”
He didn’t even try to say he didn’t do it, he simply shut his mouth. And to me that is the is a tactic of someone who is either guilty (as per his plea) or someone who is guilty of protecting another criminal. Either way he deserves to be in jail for his actions (or inactions).
I’m truly shocked that The Coast even gave this piece of trash the chance to tell his story. Why not do a story on the good people who live in the square and feel overrun by the likes of Corey Wright.
V.O.R.
I admit as Corey admits, that he has taken part in unlawful activity in his past. But you ignore the point I made that Corey is taking up a spot in the prison system that should be occupied by a more dangerous individual.
Corey’s guilt of, and possible incarceration that would have resulted from conviction for, other crimes is irrelevant. We do not have a provision in our legal system that allows for convicting people of crimes they didn’t commit in order to make up for the fact that they have not been charged for other crimes they did commit, and the idea is illogical.
Furthermore, Corey cannot claim that he is innocent at this time. It would raise the question of whom is guilty and Corey can’t answer that. Given his proximity to the crime there’s a chance he has insight into who was guilty. But given the nature of the events that transpired there’s just as good a chance that he didn’t see any of what happened to the victim. Also, he has already accepted guilt for this crime in a legal sense and so he will have been informed of the implications of claiming anything different afterward. For him to even have a chance at parole he must not only admit his crime but admit REMORSE for it. This man is smart. He will never publicly say that he didn’t commit this act because that will make his freedom that more difficult to attain.
If Corey Wright’s mother knows who the actual killer is then there is a good chance that the many more in the community know who (allegedly) did it. But note that his mother isn’t running to the media to try and get her son’s case reopened, so her silence (and that of the community) mean her son gets to sit in jail. Anyone in the community who refuses to expose the so-called real killer is helping him stay out of jail.
I have no sympathy for someone who is willing to take the fall for someone else. Be a man and speak up, or at least tell the cops who would know more information. He’s keeping his mouth shut and should stay in jail for that part alone.
“This man is smart.”
There’s your problem right there.
So, here’s a question, TheBatman.
How am I a bigot?
Because Corey is African-Canadian, I’m a bigot?
I would like to point out that a ‘friend’ wouldn’t let someone the care about do time for them. A person who would do that…is definately no friend.
You all seem to be confusing acquaintances with friends.
THere’s an old saying that IMO still rings true…an acquaintance will come down & bail your ass out of jail & give you a ride home , a friend will be in there with you !
This guy was definately part of this & if someone else has gotten away without any consequences, then Corey is responsible for that & he’s paying for it. Hopefully by the time he gets out, rap music will be like disco, a blip on screen of music history.
As Ive read all the comments, I would like to add my piece of mind upon this all……
1- he pleaded guilty to a crime he didn’t do, yet he is scared of coming forward and putting the actual suspect behind bars after taking 14 hits in jail for all of this that he supposedly DID NOT DO…. YET PLEAD GUITY TO……… whats wrong with this story?
I think he may be innocent to the fact he didn’t do it, but…it makes him just as guilty that he knows who actually did it and is protecting this guys ass.
2- I think the guy who did it is too chicken shit to actually come foreward not just because someone took the blame for him but hes a coward because what happened to Corey would eventually sneak up and happen to him in the long run.
I am not from the hood and yet I still think its safe to say, Id rather live there, however. The hood seems to be an understatement. everyone is knocking this area in town where murder can happen on your own fron doorstep, not just the hood.
3. He raps, he’s black, and he is a shy man. a guy the cops consider GREAT LEAD! …. who ele than to pick on then what seems to me as someone asking this guy to hold on to their wallet…… ( Thats the second thing that comes to mind)
— someone was jealous of this guy and wanted a way to get him out of the way, weather it be his rapping, his girlfriend who someone was chasing, or just simply cause he was black? maybe he didnt get along with this guy or was too quiet????
Who knows, all I know, is an innocent man should not be convicted of a crime, if he is not guilty, therefore he was probably there! and maybe just an innocent bystander/friend who got caught in the middle. So many people can make up a story its up to the police to figure out the truth, however seems to me, the people in the community have to be the jury and do the dirty work for them…. maybe they can read this post and get a head out of their ass and do the job we pay their asses to do!
I quote “More”, “I would like to point out that a ‘friend’ wouldn’t let someone the care about do time for them. A person who would do that…is definately no friend.
You all seem to be confusing acquaintances with friends.
THere’s an old saying that IMO still rings true…an acquaintance will come down & bail your ass out of jail & give you a ride home , a friend will be in there with you !”
——
First of all a Friend can do some stupid shit for someone, how good of a friend they are depends on what they would do for them….
Sometimes a friend is not what they seem to be but just someone jealous waiting for a way to make the world mad at you.
I think this man is innocent, but knows who did it. as Ive read, I know hes not covering someones ass up, he just cant prove who did it, and therefore after 14 stabbings, you would think he would come foreward… nope… thats not the case. This is, my dear, coming foreward is not as easy as slicing a piece of cake, its like taking a nail to concrete. People will catch up with you and then you pay the concequence, otherwize called KARMA.
Now, me not knowing this guy, it quite easily shows he is a FOLLOWER. someone who just sits by and watches it get done. guilty maybe, did he do it. NO. There are people on here stating they know who did and obviously know wh ocalled the cops and ratted the real guy out, but the stupid ass police we call out protectors, are accually chicken shit to follow up an investigation to help this guy who just wants to create music and make a life for himself” what are we paying these cops for????? what is mayor Kelly doing with his time to make sure the cops he gives a freaking job do, accually do their job? hes not paying attention to whats going on here neither. The person to blame is the actual killer not just the people who are afraid to go in to a cop station and then plead an annonymous tip… that would just scare the actual guy who murdered this man, what happened to the system where they actually interogate people for 2 to 3 hours????? maybe this city is least than what I expected! its accually a shame. because the people I know, dont sit back and let their friends get away with something they didnt do. so obviously this guy who is the actual murder, just met Corey and figured out his “analysis”
and analyzed him enough to know corey would take the fall…..
OMG, what a waste of e-paper. The guy is scum. Stop coming up with excuses for him. Since we don’t have the death penalty he is in the next best place.
…and for those who cry racism. If Cory were white he would never see the street again because the guy who was killed was black so it would have been a hate crime resulting in murder. Now there is something to cry about.
To the overly emotional, highly exaggerated person hiding behind a fake name of Ban Deranged, stop projecting your deficiencies on others. It is time for you to pull a Michael Jackson by looking at the thing in the mirror.
You’ve changed nothing with your feeble, irrational rant riddled with false accusations. Cory Wright is, in my opinion, a scumbag who belongs inside.
Now stop whining.
The Fleet is in town this weekend so maybe the “REAL” killer will try his luck again – hide the bling boys.
Basil Fawlty, the fleet has been in town many times since without incident so it looks like the Corey is the right man.
Maybe you’re hoping someone will come up with a way to pin it on a white guy so the black community can have a hay day at playing victims of racism once again. Yawn.
Free Vinny D!
The police are just as crooked as the crooks in Halifax.
This is a port city where even the seemingly insignificant and negligible sea scum can breathe up all the wealth, health and oxygen that people need to survive.
Everyone is out for their own and if that means needing to find a place to put the blame where it looks like it fits just to say they actually did something right then so be it.
Vinny D going to be a survivor of the streets and tell his story for others to learn from because in all of this mess he’s the only one keeping his head out of the clouds and hype and actually knows which way is up.
and as for the hip hop sidenotes made throughout the article. I think this song featuring one of hip-hops greatest artists, “Slick Rick The Ruler”, sums it up pretty well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4BmDAYzATk
best of luck to vinny…
although im tired of cliches etc….
personally i wouldnt seek out media attention until i was free———sometimes the more humble man gets out earlier and wiser
making excuses wether valid or not is not the signs of a winner