The murder case against Drake co-signed Toronto underground rapper Top5 has fallen apart ahead of the trial after a judge excluded key social media evidence — including music videos, posts and portions of a YouTube interview — linking him to gang activity.
The artist born Hassan Ali was arrested in 2021 for his alleged involvement in the murder of 20-year-old accounting student Hashim Hashi, who was fatally shot in his car while waiting to pull into the parking garage at 40 Falstaff Avenue (near Jane Street and Highway 401) just prior to 9 p.m. on January 31, 2021, coming home from dinner with friends. He was allegedly mistaken for the person believed to be the killer of Ali's brother, Said "Foolish" Ali, in 2017.
As the Toronto Star reports, prosecutors have stayed the first-degree murder charge, which refers to when the prosecution process is suspended upon the decision that moving forward with the case would violate the principles of fundamental justice; it does not mean that the accused is entitled to an acquittal, but rather that the Crown is disentitled to a conviction [via Peter Dostal's Criminal Law Notebook].
"It became clear crucial evidence has been excluded," Crown attorney Sue Adams told the court this morning. The judge acknowledged that while the evidence shows that Ali "goads and threatens ... and celebrates the deaths" of gang members based where Hashi was killed, "the probative value of the evidence is outweighed by the prejudicial effect."
The evidence reportedly "portrays Mr. Ali as a violent gang member with little regard for human life and who revels in the senseless killing of others. The risk that a jury will misuse this evidence and convict Mr. Ali because of his disposition is significant," Superior Court Justice Andras Shreck wrote in a 38-page decision.
The Crown's theory was that Ali is a member of the street gang Go Getem Gang, or GGG, and the murder of Hashi — who was not involved in any criminal activity — was part of a rivalry between GGG and the Falstaff Marke Gang, based in the territory where the victim was killed. The rapper has denied belonging to a gang, and claims all GGG references he makes refer to his record label of the same name. (The Crown acknowledged that GGG is a record label, but takes the position that it is also a street gang.)
While Ali's Instagram is currently disabled, back in June, he posted what appeared to be a threat to fellow Torontonian the Weeknd after the star made an appearance at Kendrick Lamar's Pop Out concert in Los Angeles, CA, seemingly siding against Drake in their beef. "@theweeknd you started doing coke now your [sic] from Compton? Wait till my GGs see you," Ali wrote on his Instagram Story [via Sportskeeda].
Upon his release today, Ali told the Star while leaving court, "An innocent man is home." When the prosecution enters a stay of proceedings, the Crown has up to a year to restart the process under the Criminal Code.