Kidnapping charge dropped against Toronto rapper accused in Wasaga Beach abduction

Warning: Readers may find images and details in this article disturbing.

A kidnapping charge has been dropped against a Toronto rapper, who was previously one of Canada’s most wanted fugitives following the January 2022 disappearance of a woman in Wasaga Beach.

Deshawn Davis, 38, was accused of being one of three men involved in the abduction of Elnaz Hajtamiri, the Richmond Hill, Ont. woman police believe was taken from a home in Wasaga Beach nearly four years ago by suspects who posed as police officers with a fake warrant for her arrest.

Davis, also known as ‘Thorobread,’ is currently behind bars in the United States facing first-degree murder and attempted murder charges following a deadly Miami, Florida nightclub shooting in 2023, that killed rapper and talent scout Lowell Grissom and sent others to hospital in serious condition.

Davis’ charges in the United States mean he will likely not be returning to Ontario anytime soon. His incarceration, and pending trial, is the reason cited by the Crown when it withdrew the kidnapping charge against Davis earlier this month in a Collingwood courtroom.

The Crown confirmed it asked that the warrant for Davis be rescinded. He was arrested last August in California, more than a year after Ontario provincial police investigators asked the public to be on the lookout for him in Canada and shortly prior to the nightclub shooting in Florida.

The Crown added it “reserves the right to recommence proceedings” against Davis “should circumstances change.”

Davis is one of several men investigators believe kidnapped Hajtamiri from a Wasaga Beach home on the night of January 12, 2022. She was taken from the home barefoot and dragged through the snow before being loaded into a stolen Lexus SUV. She has not been seen or heard from by loved ones since and police believe Hajtamiri is dead.

Hajtamiri had been in hiding in Wasaga Beach for weeks, after being attacked inside her Richmond Hill parking garage, in late December 2021, when two men used a frying pan to assault her. The attack was captured on surveillance video. The abduction attempt was thwarted by a bystander and the men took off. Harshdeep Binner and Riyasat Singh both pleaded guilty in the attack and were sentenced.

Hajtamiri’s former boyfriend, Mohamad Lilo, whom police believe orchestrated the frying pan assault and her eventual abduction, was found guilty of aggravated assault by a Barrie jury in June.

Along with Lilo, police have charged about ten others with Hajtamiri’s assault and disappearance. Jaspreet Singh, Akash Rana, and Harshpreet Sekhon were arrested and had their charges stayed by the Crown earlier this year. Adams Ankamah, who was alleged to have been involved in Hajtamiri’s kidnapping had his charges withdraw by the Crown last November. Charges against two women, Krystal P. Lawrence, and Dominique Ewan, were stayed by the prosecution as well.

Sukhpreet Singh, 25, remains in custody. The Mississauga, Ont. man was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in San Antonio, Texas in June and extradited to Ontario last month.

Singh is charged with aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence for the parking garage attack and failed abduction on Hajtamiri in late 2021. Singh been on the run for more than two years.

Mohamad Lilo is scheduled to be sentenced for aggravated assault early in the new year and stand trial accused of the murder of Elnaz Hajtamiri in the spring.

Sukhpreet Singh is scheduled to return to a virtual courtroom in Newmarket in a week’s time. The allegations against the accused have not been tested in court.

Elnaz Hajtamiri was 37 years old at the time of her disappearance. She had worked with Lilo and dated him until ending their relationship in the months prior to her abduction.