Bugs, lies and more lies uncover clues in Davis slaying

Det. Sgt. Peter Moreira, left, and Det. Sgt. Mike Barsky set up a series of wiretaps, then fed Marshall Ross a string of lies to help uncover the truth behind the murder of Ross's cousin, Glen Davis.

Betsy Powell/Toronto Star file photo

Betsy Powell Courts Bureau

Take one murder suspect.

Bug his phones, those of his friends, family and associates, and plant listening devices in vehicles where that suspect might let down his guard.

Wiretaps played in Ontario Superior Court this week revealed some of the key tactics Toronto police used to show that Marshall Ross was behind the 2005 baseball attack and subsequent murder of his cousin and godfather, Glen Davis.

The strategy included feeding Ross lies, according to the recordings the Crown is also using to demonstrate Dmitri Kossyrine and Ivgeny “Eugene” Vorobiov were also behind the millionaire philanthropist’s shooting death on May 18, 2007. The two men, both 33, have pleaded not guilty.

On Feb. 20, 2009, homicide detectives Peter Moreira and Mike Barsky approached Ross at his office at N.M. Davis Corporation, where Davis had given his godson’s fledgling home-renovation business free space.

Playing like TV detective Columbo, the officers pretended their visit was happenstance, that they were there to speak to another Davis associate and had impulsively decided to knock on his door.

Unbeknown to Ross, Barsky recorded their chat. “Can I take two minutes of your time?” began Barsky with breezy casualness.

Barsky and Moreira then spun a fictional yarn: Police had a DNA match from blood collected after Davis was savagely attacked by a man wielding a baseball on Dec. 21, 2005.

“Back then, we just expected it was all your uncle’s blood ... but it’s not,” Barksy told Ross, who referred to Davis as his uncle.

“Turns out there’s a fellow in custody right now for something, robbery or something. DNA matched.”

Barksy ramped up his fibbing.

“We haven’t had an opportunity to talk to this person because people in custody generally don’t want to talk to us.”

The police strategy was apparent. In every lie, plant a kernel of truth. Tyler Cawley was indeed in custody. But he had, in fact, spilled his guts implicating himself, Kossyrine and Ross in the 2005 attack.

“What we can say now is at least this individual was in that parking lot with Glen,” Barsky told Ross, who was shaken by the news.

“There are people actually in custody?” he asked, his voice stricken with fear. The officers had another trick.

“Does that fella look familiar to you?” Barsky said, handing over Cawley’s mug shot.

“I don’t see he does,” Ross said before later relenting that perhaps he should “mull it” over.

That afternoon, Ross met Kossyrine, with police listening in after planting a bug in the Russian’s BMW. Presumably away from prying ears, Ross told Kossyrine about the DNA match and repeatedly implicated himself. And he did remember Cawley, the “fat guy with short dark hair and a moustache.”

“The beautiful part of it is that there’s no motive. There’s no reason why we would’ve done it,” Ross said, as Toto’s “Africa” song played in the background.

Ross, it turned out, had a $2.5-million motive — money Davis lent him and expected to be paid back, with interest.

This week, Crown attorney Bev Richards asked Moreira, who was in the witness box, if the officers had been “sneaky.”

He agreed.

The trial continues Monday.