A man who participated in the blow-up of the suspected gambling den in Woodbridge was sentenced to a three-year imprisonment.
Despite the fact that a guilty plea has been provided to the public, as well as a video footage of what happened, eventually resulted in a three-year prison sentence, the actual reason why Woodbridge’s Caffee Corretto was blown up last year.
The blown-up place was a suspected gambling den. An online media took photos of the place after the explosion, with them clearly showing what appeared to be illegal gambling terminals situated in Caffe Corretto’s back room, which became visible after the explosion.
As a matter of fact, the venue was raided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers in January 2016, as the surprising police attack being part of the several raids which were carried out across the Italian cafés and social clubs situated in Toronto and York Region. At the time when the raids took place, a total of 74 illegal gaming terminals, as well as about CA$200,000 in cash, were seized by police officers. However, regardless of the raids, Caffe Corretto was left operational, and the illegal gambling offerings may have still been provided to customers.
Juan Munoz and his partner showed up to the place, which has been a suspected gambling den, at 4 AM on June 29th, 2017 and parked their black BMW alongside Caffe Corretto. At the court hearing, it became clear that Mr. Munoz got out of the car after parking it, then got a number of jerrycans and illegally broke into the café. Only a few moments later, the place was on fire, with rubble being down on both the car and Munoz, who was trapped beside the vehicle.
After his partner ran away, Munoz managed to get out from the rubble and got about 500 meters away from the place but ran into two police officers and a member of the public, who he told he had been robbed. Later, the police officers would discover one of his shoes in close proximity to the disintegrated Caffe Corretto, and the other in the debris around the place.
Defendant’s Lawyer Claims Incident Was No Obvious Danger to People
At the hearing, which took place earlier this week, the prosecutor called for the Justice Amit Ghosh to issue a prison sentence of between four and five years to the defendant, saying that Munoz and his partner did the wrongdoing deliberately after planning.
The estimated amount of fuel used in the act was about 70 liters, according to the fire commissioner, while the damage brought to the building was worth approximately CA$225,000. Crown Michael Demczur further noted that viewers of the scene could see Mr. Munoz handing something which appeared to be a cell-phone to his partner after the explosion took place. These claims were denied by the defendant’s lawyer.
Don Carter, the lawyer of the defendant, insisted for a two-year sentence saying that his client was not only badly injured, but also took precautions to make sure that other people would not be injured at the incident. He shared that Mr. Munoz and his partner had made sure that there was no obvious danger to other members of the public who could have been nearby, and the incident was no obvious danger to people.
Furthermore, the lawyer explained that the initial intention of the two men was to cause a fire, not an explosion. Eventually, Justice Ghosh has sentenced Munoz to three years in prison.
