Lucas guilty of second degree murder in Niagara Parkway shooting deaths

A Welland jury has found 27-year-old Toronto rapper Christopher Lucas, known by the stage name “El Plaga,” guilty of two counts of second-degree murder in the January 19, 2021 shooting deaths of 18-year-old Christine Crooks and 20-year-old Juliana Pannunzio.

The two young women were fatally shot at a short-term rental house on the Niagara Parkway in Fort Erie during a birthday party that night.

The verdict was delivered Saturday afternoon in a Welland courtroom after roughly two and a half days of jury deliberations.

Justice James Ramsay of the Ontario Superior Court thanked the jury of six women and six men for their service, noting the trial’s length and complexity.

Emotional outbursts followed the reading of the verdicts. Family members of the victims wept with relief as Lucas was declared guilty on both counts.

By law, a second-degree murder conviction in Canada carries a mandatory life sentence. Jurors were asked to recommend how long Lucas should serve before becoming eligible for parole, a period the judge can set anywhere from 10 to 25 years.

Nine of the 12 jurors urged the maximum 25 years of parole ineligibility, while the remaining three did not offer a recommendation.

Lucas, who had pleaded not guilty, showed little outward emotion as the verdict was announced. He remains in custody and is scheduled to return to court on February 23 to set a date for his formal sentencing hearing.

The trial began in October 2025, throughout which the jury heard from dozens of witnesses. Nearly a dozen partygoers who were at the Fort Erie gathering testified, yet not one would identify the shooter.

Several witnesses claimed to remember little of the incident, with some even denying hearing gunshots, despite evidence that both victims were shot multiple times. Assistant Crown Attorney Jody Ostapiw argued that “dishonesty” and “convenient memory loss” plagued much of the testimony from party guests.

During closing arguments, Ostapiw accused many of the witnesses of lying on the stand to protect the killer, describing a near “code of silence” that made the case especially challenging.

Prosecutors maintained that Christopher Lucas was the gunman who executed both young women in quick succession following an altercation. The court heard that an argument erupted between Lucas and Christine Crooks at the party shortly before the shooting.

Crooks was shot first, and moments later Juliana Pannunzio was gunned down as well, allegedly because she tried to call 911 for help.

“If this story has a hero, it’s Juliana,” Ostapiw told jurors, asserting that Pannunzio was killed “because she was the only person in that house willing to call 911” after Crooks was shot.

The Crown’s case was circumstantial, focusing on Lucas’s suspicious actions after the killings, but prosecutors argued the totality of evidence–and the absence of any credible alternative scenario–proved Lucas was the shooter beyond a reasonable doubt.

The defence, however, pointed the finger at another man.

John Fitzmaurice, Lucas’s lawyer, insisted that the real shooter was Trevor Barnett, the guest of honour whose birthday was being celebrated that night.

Barnett, now 33, was originally charged alongside Lucas in the double homicide, but those charges were later dropped and never proceeded to trial.

In October 2024, Barnett pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for his involvement in the aftermath of the shootings and received a sentence of time served and two years’ probation.

At Lucas’s trial, Fitzmaurice argued that Barnett had more motive and opportunity to commit the murders, suggesting Barnett coerced other party guests into silence. Barnett even testified at trial that “four strange men” showed up and killed Crooks and Pannunzio–a claim no other witness could corroborate.

The Crown cast Barnett not as an innocent bystander but as a possible “puppet master” who assisted Lucas and helped orchestrate a cover-up of the crime.

Saturday’s guilty verdict brought a measure of closure for the victims’ families, coming just days before the fifth anniversary of the killings. After court adjourned, Niagara Regional Police detectives and Crown attorneys embraced the families in a tearful celebration of the hard-fought outcome.

Christine Crooks, from Toronto, was 18 at the time of her death, and Juliana Pannunzio, from the Windsor area, was 20.

With Lucas now convicted and facing a life term, family members say they finally feel some justice has been served for Juliana and Christine.

EDITOR’S NOTE | January 17, 2026: Portions of this story, originally published January 17, have been fully rewritten for clarity.

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