Barrie, Ont. man involved in 2023 catwalk shooting arrested for conditional sentence breach

Jayson Espinosa-Bermeo is pictured in this image. (CTV News/Mike Arsalides)

Nearly two years after pleading guilty to being the getaway driver following an April 2023 shooting, a Barrie man was charged with breaching the conditions of his conditional sentence order.

Jayson Espinosa-Bermeo, 24, was charged and released from jail prior to Christmas, according to court documents obtained by CTV News. The charge was subsequently withdrawn following time served in custody.

Bermeo was serving a 20-month conditional sentence following his guilty plea in May 2024, including house arrest for the first half, followed by curfew. He admitted to being the getaway driver following a failed robbery attempt and shooting along a catwalk in Barrie’s Letitia Heights neighbourhood.

The man was shot three times and taken to hospital in life-threatening condition. Espinosa-Bermeo was one of four people arrested by police, including the shooter, Timothy White.

The court heard Espinosa-Bermeo helped White escape the area and get out of Barrie. Espinosa-Bermeo was arrested in Orillia when the tactical team came knocking at his door. White was on the run for two weeks before being tracked down by police in Hamilton.

Initially charged with attempted murder, White pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in 2024 and was sentenced to four and a half more years in prison.

In a letter read by the Crown in 2024, the victim told the court his life has been ruined after he got into an argument with a group of strangers at a nearby convenience store. The court heard when the man refused to be robbed, he was shot by White and left for dead on the catwalk. He described nearly dying of sepsis in the hospital.

Upon hearing Espinosa-Bermeo’s conditional sentence that day in a Bradford courtroom, the victim called the judge’s ruling “ridiculous.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported Espinosa-Bermeo pleaded guilty to drinking and driving. The information provided by a courthouse clerk was incorrect and the article has been amended.