durhamregion.com | This Week | Thursday, December 22, 2022 | 28 NickNickNickNickNick andandandand CarmelaCarmelaCarmelaCarmelaCarmelaCarmelaCarmelaCarmelaCarmela La Pizza! & Pasta A Traditionadition ofof QQualitualityy,,y,yy,y ValueValueV & Service Since 1975 Holiday SeaSoN SpeCial • Focaccia Bread w balsamic dip • Penne w tomato sauce (add meat $6) or Lasagna add $8 • Breaded Veal or Chicken Parmigiana (6pc) • Caesar or Garden Salad • Nick's's' famous Crostata pie $76.95 + HST Custom Catering AvAvA ailable (talk to Carmela) TakeoutTakeoutT or have your favorites delivered forforf a delicious easy dinner or entertaining over the busy Holiday Season! WedWedW 11-8, Thurs & Fri 11-10, Sat noon-10, Sun 4-8, Mon & TuesTuesT Closed Large Assortment of FROZEN APPETIZERS & Family Size ENTREES Home made on premise Arancini - also cocktail(G), Lasagna, Veal, Chicken & Eggplant Parmigiana, Soups, Sauces - Bolognese (meat), Arrabbiata, Marsala Wine, Sausage Pepperonato, Alfredo, Rose, Vodka, Desserts - Tiramisu and more... One location only! 30 Taunton Rd. E., North Oshawa • 905-725-5100 www.lapizzaandpasta.com Drop off a non-perishable food item during regular hours. y y We also have 2 si zes of ready-to-donate b ags available! $10 re10 $7 Thank you forforf your support! ToToT find a location near you, please visit farmbofarmbof y.ca. All donations All donations will remain in your loclocal cal communitommunity. Holiday Food Drive The past year has seen a number of high-profile cases in Durham Region's courts. Here's a look back at some prominent cases that came to a conclusion in 2022. • In March a judge sentenced a man to 12 years in prison after he was convicted in the death of an infant. Denim Henderson wept as he stood before Superior Court judge Laura Bird for sentencing on his manslaughter conviction. "I've let a lot of people down," he said, sobbing. "I just hope I get a chance to rebuild myself." Henderson, 29, had pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder of nine-month-old Kaleb McKay in a trial that began Nov. 8, 2021. Jurors heard that Kaleb was declared dead by paramedics responding to a 911 call at the Oshawa apartment Henderson shared with Kaleb's mother on the night of Dec. 29, 2016. A subsequent autopsy revealed Kaleb had sustained dozens of injuries throughout his tiny body. Jurors found Henderson not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter, aggravated assault, and failing to provide the necessaries of life. The judge commented that while the exact findings of fact made by the juryfindings of fact made by the juryf are unclear, their verdict indicates they believed Henderson assaulted Kaleb and caused his death. • In late June a jury convicted Mohammad Khan of first-degree murder in the brutal killing of a man in his Oshawa home. Khan had pleaded not guilty to first degree murder in the killing of 21-year-old Ahmed Buttu, who sustained more than 20 stab wounds as well as multiple blunt force injuries during a struggleforce injuries during a strugglef inside his home on Langford Drive on the evening of Feb. 27, 2019. Khan, who was 18 and living with his parents in Whitby at the time, broke into the house intent on stealing cannabis, court heard. Khan testified he'd stabbed Buttu in self-defence. His conviction for first-degree murder brings an automatic sentence of life in prison with no parole eligi-bility for 25 years. • After three and a half days of deliberation in October a jury convicted a man accused of causing his girlfriend's death of committing an indignity to a body, but failed to arrive at a verdict on the more substantial charge of manslaughter. Jeffrey Weldon, 47, had pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and committing an indignity to a body in connection with the death of his longtime girlfriend, Melanie Vachon. Vachon's body was found in a shallow grave by people walking in Gordon Richards Park near the Lake Ontario shore in Whitby on June 2, 2018. Jurors heard that Weldon, who shared an apartment with Vachon in Whitby, had reportedVachon in Whitby, had reportedV her missing about a month earlier, claiming she'd left one morning saying she was going to meet a friend and then disappeared. Police suspected Weldon knew more than he was revealing and launched a months-long undercover investigation aimed at extracting a confession from him. The project followed the so-called Mr. Big investigative model: undercover officers posing as landscaping workers approached Weldon with an offer of work and over time befriended him, welcoming him into a fictional criminal organization that offered him a chance to make money. Weldon eventually revealedWeldon eventually revealedW that on the day she died, he caught up with Vachon near a party spot at the lakeshore and found her extremely intoxicatedfound her extremely intoxicatedf by drugs. Weldon said Vachon quickly died, and he concealed her body, in part to keep her family from learning she'd died of a drug overdose. Despite the confession, Weldon continued to insist he had not caused Vachon's death. 2022 SAW A NUMBER OF HIGH-PROFILE CASES CONCLUDE IN DURHAM Jeffrey Weldon, seen here in an interview with Durham police, was convicted of committing an indignity to a body but acquitted of manslaughter after a trial in Oshawa in 2022. Court case video image JEFF MITCHELL jmitchell@durhamregion.com NEWS