A man whose travels through Toronto were captured on video surveillance prior to him dumping a body on a sidewalk by a bus stop apologized during his sentencing hearing on Tuesday.
“I’m sorry to Rose’s family,” Marvin Lattif said during the afternoon court appearance via video link. “I lost a brother that day.”
Lattif, 35, of Toronto, had earlier pleaded guilty to committing an indignity to human remains by disposing of Rohan Rose’s body on the side of a Toronto road.
The death was later connected to a shooting in Clearview Township hours earlier.
“Mr. Lattif’s actions were selfish, legally and morally reprehensible,” Crown attorney Julie Janiuk said during Tuesday’s remote sentencing hearing.
Janiuk proposed Lattif be sentenced to 18 months to two years in jail, minus pre-trial custody.
Lattif's lawyer sought a three-month sentence.
The sequence of events ending up with the discovery in Toronto unfolded after what was described at the time as a Collingwood-area home invasion/robbery gone wrong.
Just after midnight on March 2, 2020, Huronia West OPP officers responded to a shooting at a home on Collingwood Clearview Townline near 36/37 Nottawasaga Sideroad, west of Nottawa. A man was sent to a Toronto hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
A few hours later, Toronto police officers on patrol discovered the body of 36-year-old Rose, also of Toronto, on a sidewalk outside a hospital clinic. At the time, police said he was considered a suspect in the home invasion.
Court heard that earlier on the previous evening, Rose, along with another man, met Lattif at a Toronto apartment complex and they headed north in a black Mercedes. Their stop for gas in Toronto was captured on surveillance video.
Several hours later, just after midnight, OPP responded to a shooting at a Clearview Township home. The home’s resident had been shot twice. Court heard Rose was also shot at the residence and was killed.
What role Lattif played in the shooting was never determined, court heard.
Janiuk said Lattif’s return to his home in Toronto and his travels through the city were all captured on surveillance video after exiting off Highway 400.
She also said Lattif has a short criminal record, including a 2011 conviction for three robberies.
Defence lawyer Richard Fedorowicz presented a letter of support written by Rose’s partner in which she expresses forgiveness and a belief that Lattif will make positive changes in his life and be a good role model for his three-year-old son.
The two families had been friends, the lawyer added.
Lattif was working at a paving company when he was arrested and spent 23 days in custody. Fedorowicz described the rest of the time since his September 2020 arrest as restrictive with “stringent bail conditions” and akin to a conditional sentence.
Lattif returns to court March 3 for sentencing.
Co-accused Paul Morris is scheduled to appear in court the same day and is also expected to plead guilty.
Charges against a third man, Rick Graham, are being stayed.
