Vaughan man sentenced to 6 years on firearms charges related to woman’s death

A Vaughan man who was acquitted of murder in the death of his girlfriend’s friend in May but found guilty on firearms charges has been sentenced to six years in prison.

Harold Santana Simon sat quietly in the prisoner’s box as the family of Makayla Roxburgh-Carpino looked on, many of them wearing pins depicting Roxburgh-Carpino’s face with a purple ribbon attached.

After Superior Court Justice Suhail Akhtar delivered his sentence, dozens of family members got up and walked out of the courtroom, someone yelling, “You’re a coward, a woman abuser, a monster. Rot in hell.”

“While I confess that this verdict is in many ways very difficult to reconcile with the evidence, the jury verdict must be respected,” said Akhtar in his reasons, acknowledging that he too has trouble understanding the not guilty verdict.

On May 11, 2024, Simon entered an apartment on Northcliffe Boulevard near Eglinton Avenue West belonging to his girlfriend Sentoree Kamara without being invited. He entered using a key he had been given before.

Hours earlier, Simon had a dispute with Kamara believing she was seeing other men.

Roxburgh-Carpino was asleep in Kamara’s bed when Simon woke them both up and demanded that Roxburgh-Carpino leave the room. She refused.

There was a scuffle and a gun belonging to Simon was discharged during the incident.

The Crown alleged that Simon left the bedroom and he returned with a gun, placed it to Roxburgh-Carpino’s head and shot her.

Simon in his testimony at trial, said the shooting was an accident. He said Kamara had retrieved the gun that he had left in her apartment and pointed it at him. He sought to take the gun from her and said the firearm accidentally discharged killing Roxburgh-Carpino.

Simon at trial, admitted the gun belonged to him and said he brought it to the apartment on a prior occasion for self-protection. Simon testified he had told Kamara someone told him someone from the area wanted to kidnap and harm him.

Simon said Kamara had found the gun, which was fully loaded and cocked, and attempted to shoot him with it. He insisted the gun discharged only because he was trying to remove it from her hands.

Immediately after the shooting, Simon said he panicked and fled the scene, driving away and taking the gun with him before disposing of it in a cemetery near his house. He later returned to recover it, he said, so he could seek a lawyer about what to do next.

Simon was arrested in a high-risk takedown at a gas station near Orillia, around 8:30 p.m. on the evening Roxburgh-Carpino was shot.

Akhtar said that the 30-year-old who is classified as a foreign national and has no status in Canada, will likely be deported once he’s released from prison.

The judge said he rejected Simon’s assertion that he left the gun in Kamara’s apartment for self-protection saying “it makes no sense.”

Akhtar also found there was no real explanation for why he didn’t contact his lawyer, nor why he had the gun for nearly two years. The serial number of the gun was also defaced which Akhtar pointed out is an offence in itself.

At the sentencing hearing, 31 victim impact statements were filed including one from the mother of Roxburgh-Carpino who said the day her daughter’s life was taken away, was also the day parts of her were taken.

“It was Mother’s Day weekend. She loved celebrating all the mothers in the family because family meant everything to her. Instead, I spent Mother’s Day making funeral arrangements for my 20-year-old daughter,” said Sabrina Carpino.

The Crown had sought a sentence of 12 to 16 years in prison, consecutive sentences for the charges of possession of a loaded firearm and the unauthorized possession of a firearm in a vehicle. But Akhtar said a sentence in the double-digit range was not appropriate.

In handing down a six-year sentence, Akhtar said the possession of this firearm led to the death of Roxburgh-Carpino after Simon entered the apartment uninvited and found it aggravating that Simon left a loaded cocked gun in the apartment where a child was present.

Afterwards, Akhtar noted that he tried to get rid of it and conceal the evidence in a public place.

Simon has been in custody for nearly two and a half years. After credit for pre-sentence custody, the judge told court he has two years and four months left to serve.

He is also facing a lifetime prohibition order and a DNA order.