windsor home invader draws 16-year sentence for 'abhorrent' killing
the target in a vicious windsor home invasion two years...
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the target in a vicious windsor home invasion two years ago was quickly stabbed to death, but the robbers didn’t get the drugs and cash they’d hoped for, fleeing instead with a few stolen household items, including an armload of toilet paper.
“it only serves to highlight the tragic stupidity of this offence,” superior court justice bruce thomas said monday in sentencing the last of the culprits involved in the jan. 9, 2023, robbery and killing of justin kaczmarski in his own home.
originally charged with first-degree murder, zephaniah moses, 30, re-entered a guilty plea on monday to the lesser charge of manslaughter and was handed a 16-year prison sentence.
in an agreed statement of facts, moses confessed to using a knife to stab kaczmarski, 39, multiple times, including in the neck, chest and knee. an autopsy identified a knife wound to the heart as the cause of death.
moses and others had gathered that night in a sixth-floor apartment next door to kaczmarski’s unit in the eight-storey residential highrise at 333 glengarry ave. a woman known to kaczmarski knocked on the door and when he opened, moses and another man, kevin lansing — both wearing gloves and face masks — burst in. other building residents were among those present.
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there was a physical altercation between a knife-wielding moses, who demanded drugs and money, and kaczmarski, who was stabbed multiple times. lansing held a firearm, later revealed to be a replica handgun.
investigators with the windsor police service quickly made arrests. four people would be charged with murder, and a fifth with accessory after the fact.
just months later, city police would announce a 24/7 officer presence in the troubled city-owned building east of the downtown.
a windsor police service officer patrols a hall at wheelton manor, 333 glengarry ave., on aug. 30, 2024, as part of a stepped-up 24/7 enforcement initiative.
dan janisse
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windsor star
“my heart goes out to the victim’s family — his death was not intentional,” moses said in a brief comment before sentencing. family and close friends of the victim sat behind him in the courtroom.
justice thomas accepted three victim impact statements, but acting deputy crown attorney bryan pillon advised the judge the authors did not wish them to be read out but simply filed with the court.
“this is a truly horrific criminal offence which continues to torment mr. kaczmarski’s friends and family,” pillon told the court.
‘very aggravating criminal record.’ zephaniah moses, of windsor, is shown in an undated booking image provided by windsor police service.
windsor police service handout
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windsor star
in accepting a plea of manslaughter rather than for murder, which would have resulted in an automatic life sentence, the judge acknowledged the crown’s position that it would have been a difficult case to prosecute at trial, despite extensive camera surveillance evidence and witnesses who co-operated with police.
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justice thomas said the crown’s desire to move expeditiously on the criminal matters surrounding kaczmarski’s killing was in part aimed at getting evidence on the record as quickly as possible, to which pillon added: “exactly right.”
the tragic case “captures the activities of a very vulnerable community,” said the judge, adding that such prosecution witnesses could not necessarily be relied on for their memory of events or testimony at an eventual trial, even if the case got that far. given the history of those involved in the drug subculture, “at times they end up dead,” said thomas.
while acknowledging the guilty plea as a mitigating factor and expression of remorse, pillon described the crime as “abhorrent,” including the fact it occurred in the victim’s own home. he cited moses’ “prior very aggravated criminal record,” including convictions for violent crimes. denunciation and sending a message of deterrence to others demanded a stiffer sentence, the prosecutor added.
the judge accepted a joint submission by the crown and defence calling for a 16-year prison sentence. while manslaughter cases range in severity from “near-accident to near-murder … this case is falling to the near-murder,” said thomas, adding: “the crime is grave.”
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while rehabilitation is always the goal of incarceration, thomas — who pointed to a criminal record of 24 convictions since age 18, nine for violent offences — said it was “hard to be hopeful” when it comes to moses’ future prospects.
a scan of archived windsor star stories shows the victim, justin kaczmarski, was no angel, known to police and regularly in the news for arrests on an array of criminal charges, including for alleged weapons, burglary, illicit drugs, fraud and breach of court order offences. his name was once among those mentioned when a former city police chief highlighted how department resources were being stretched thin by rising crime rates in windsor.
“mr. kaczmarski, while having a troubled life, was deeply loved by family and friends,” justice thomas said in reading his sentencing decision.
comments on his 2023 online obituary describe a man who struggled with addiction and had suffered homelessness, but who was loved by friends and who inspired others. assistant crown attorney andrea harris told the star kaczmarski was “very much loved by the other residents at 333 glengarry.”
a police cruiser is shown outside 333 glengarry ave. on jan. 10, 2023, where a man was killed in his apartment the previous night. the crown on monday credited “excellent investigation” by windsor police for this week’s conclusion of the case.
dan janisse
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windsor star
as for moses, a windsor-born canadian citizen from a troubled family upbringing, the judge spoke of how an addict’s “thirst for drugs and money” resulted in the killing of someone “who might have at one point been his friend.”
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moses was given credit of just over three years for 756 actual days spent in pre-sentence custody, and thomas shaved an additional five months off the sentence for what he criticized as poor conditions in “an overburdened provincial corrections system.” moses spent 230 days either triple- or quadruple-bunked — on the floor in cells meant to sleep two — as well as 211 days in lockdown, during which there was no outdoor time, access to showers or visitors.
moses has 12 years and five months left to serve. he was also handed a lifetime weapons ban and ordered to submit a blood sample for a police dna databank.
of the co-accused in the now-concluded case:
• kevin lansing, 51 at the time of the killing and charged with first-degree murder, robbery with an offensive weapon and pointing a firearm, pleaded guilty to manslaughter last march 28 and was sentenced to seven years prison, less 30 months credit for time spent in pre-sentence custody.
• shelby nantais, 30 at the time and charged with first-degree murder, pleaded guilty last march to accessory after the fact to robbery and was given a suspended sentence and placed on probation.
• james close, 60 at the time, pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact and was sentenced june 13, 2023, to a nine-month jail term and three years probation.
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• luthor heron, then 47, had his murder and drug charges withdrawn in 2023.
windsor police in december announced its beefed-up presence in the glengarry neighbourhood had resulted in the number of violent crimes dropping “dramatically” and that the project would continue into 2025.
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