Carlos Guerra Guerra has been found guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting death of 18-year-old Josue Silva at a July 2021 bush party in southwest London.
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He was also found guilty of assault with a weapon on Logan Marshall, Silva’s best friend. Guerra Guerra, now 23, had pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Jurors delivered their verdict shortly after 3 p.m. on Friday, just shy of 24 hours after they began deliberations following a marathon 10-week trial at the London courthouse. A sentencing date was set for March 21.
On the assault charge, Guerra Guerra was charged as a party to the offence, while his friend Dylan Schaap, 23, has admitted in another court proceeding to hitting Marshall in the head with the blunt end of a machete, causing a concussion. Schaap pleaded guilty to manslaughter and assault with a weapon and was sentenced last month to 10 years in prison.
Bush party homicide trial: What the jury didn’t hear
The jury heard Guerra Guerra and Schaap showed up at the party near Pack Road and Grand Oak Crossing on July 31, 2021, at the request of Emily Altmann, then 19. She’d sent messages to Guerra Guerra that she was being harassed by a group of young men and was going to be “jumped.”
Altmann had been in an argument with people at the party over unwanted photos that were snapped and a drink that was spilled or thrown in the direction of her friend group.
Guerra Guerra and Schaap arrived wearing masks and dark clothing. Schaap was armed with a machete and Guerra Guerra had a loaded handgun in a bag. The jury heard they went into the party with Altmann and others to confront the harassers.
Guerra Guerra has admitted he fatally shot Silva, but testified that he was acting in self-defence. Guerra Guerra claimed Silva was initially unarmed when they began to fight but was able to get a machete and was holding it over him when he fired the gun to scare him. The Crown argued Guerra Guerra, a wannabe rapper, was carrying around a loaded handgun and wanted to use it to cement his bad-boy reputation.
Altmann was a co-defendant at the murder trial until Nov. 25, when the Crown decided to stay all her charges and withdraw obstruction charges that were to be tried at a later date.