Law360 Canada ( March 10, 2023, 6:31 AM EST) -- Appeal by Abdulle from his conviction and sentence after a jury found him and his co-accused guilty of second-degree murder. Abdulle argued the trial judge erred in admitting evidence about six incidents of violence between Tandridge Cripz and Albion group, erred in allowing the Crown to use messages conveyed in rap music lyrics in cross examination, and the imposition of a 15-year period of parole ineligibility which was excessive. Abdulle and his co-accused, who admitted membership in the Tandridge Cripz gang, both fired shots at Ahmed and his companions. One of them fired a shot that killed Ahmed. Both were charged with first degree murder. The Crown characterized the shooting as a planned and deliberate murder that capped a cycle of escalating violence between the Tandridge Cripz and a rival Albion group. The Defence denied the shooting was planned. The trial judge admitted a series of rap music videos said to have been made by members of the Tandridge Cripz but revisited his initial evidential ruling and excluded the rap videos as their probative value was now diminished because of Abdulle’s concessions. The Crown tendered evidence of six incidents of violence in the Tandridge and Albion neighbourhoods over the months before the shooting of Ahmed as evidence of a pattern of retaliatory violence between the Tandridge Cripz and the Albion group that culminated in the killing of Ahmed....