Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
The state rested its case at Jussie Smollett's trial Thursday after key testimony from two brothers who said the former "Empire" actor plotted a racist and anti-gay attack on himself in downtown Chicago and paid them to carry it out.
After a three-day presentation of evidence, special prosecutor Dan Webb told the presiding judge Thursday evening that the prosecution was done. The defence began its case immediately, calling, among others, an emergency room physician who saw Smollett after the purported attack.
Judge James Linn told jurors there would be no testimony Friday, saying he expected they would begin deliberations no later than Tuesday.
The physician, Dr. Robert Turelli, testified he treated Smollett after he went to a hospital early on Jan. 29, 2019, telling Turelli he'd been attacked, punched and kicked. Turelli said Smollett had some bruises and scratches but no serious injuries.
Before the state rested Thursday, Smollett's lawyer worked to discredit the brothers' accounts, suggesting they attacked Smollett because they didn't like him, and tried to get him to pay them each US$1 million not to testify that he staged the assault.
Defence attorney Shay Allen suggested the brothers were motivated to accuse Smollett of staging the hoax because they disliked the performer — who is gay and Black — and then saw an opportunity to make money.
Olabingo Osundairo's testimony echoed the account his brother, Abimbola Osundairo, gave on the witness stand a day earlier, including that Smollett wanted the brothers to douse him with gasoline and put a noose around his neck, and that Smollett gave them a US$100 bill to buy the supplies and paid them with a US$3,500 cheque.
Olabingo Osundairo said Smollett told him he received hate mail at the TV studio in Chicago "and he had this crazy idea of having two MAGA supporters attack him," an apparent reference to then-U.S. president Donald Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again." Osundairo believed the plan was to publicize the attack on social media, not to involve police, he said.
They opted to pour bleach on Smollett, Osundairo said, because he wasn't comfortable using gasoline. He said Smollett wanted his brother to do the punching, and that it should look like he fought back.
Osundairo also addressed the defence contention that the brothers were driven by homophobia. He testified that he has nothing against gays and the jury was shown a photo of the siblings taking part in Chicago's 2015 gay pride parade dressed as trojan warriors.
Smollett, 39, is charged with six counts of felony disorderly conduct for making what prosecutors say was a false police report about the alleged attack on Jan. 29, 2019 — one count for each time he gave a report — to three different officers. The class 4 felony carries a prison sentence of up to three years, but experts have said if Smollett is convicted he likely would be placed on probation and ordered to perform community service.
Olabingo Osundairo also denied a white person was involved, or that he and his brother even wore masks or makeup to make it appear they were white. In statements that were widely ridiculed because the brothers are Black, Smollett had said he saw pale or white skin around the eyes of one of his masked attackers.
During cross examination, Allen asked Abimbola Osundairo, who worked as a stand-in on the Chicago set of "Empire," if he tried to get a US$5,000-per-week job as Smollett's security and if after he was questioned by police and released he told Smollett he and his brother wouldn't testify at his trial if they were each paid US$1 million. Osundairo responded "No sir" to both.
In follow-up questioning by Webb, Osundairo said he never thought Smollett would go to the police to report the fake attack as a real hate crime. He said Smollett told him that he wanted to use it to generate media attention, and that he has never lied to Chicago police.
Olabingo Osundairo told jurors he talked to police without a promise of immunity or under any sort of favorable deal. He added: "It was simply just to get the truth out of what happened that night."
Smollett's legal team needs to cast doubt on the brothers' damaging testimony, but it isn't easy. Abimbola Osundairo stuck with his story during cross-examination, while also denying he had a sexual relationship with Smollett or that he asked the actor to hire him. And much of what the Osundairos have told jurors about that night appears to be corroborated by video and other evidence.
Smollett's legal team asked Olabingo Osundairo about a previous felony conviction, which he testified was in 2012, for aggravated battery. As a convicted felon he cannot legally possess a firearm, but police found several guns when they searched their home after the alleged attack. Both brothers said the guns belonged to Abimbola Osundairo.
The defence said the brothers lied about Smollett staging the attack to get out of trouble for possessing the firearms and heroin that was also found in the home.
Abimbola Osundairo, an aspiring actor, said he and his brother agreed to their roles in the fake attack because he felt indebted to Smollett for helping him with his acting career.
Associated Press writer Michael Tarm contributed to this report.
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.