The cousins who sued Barry Sherman for a big piece of his fortune were ordered to pay the Apotex founder $300,000 in legal costs one week before Sherman and his wife, Honey, were murdered.

The existence of this court judgment and the bitter fight that preceded it, and how it could appear to police and the public as a possible motive, has pushed one of the cousins to speak out and clear his name.

“I have no qualms, concerns, worries about sitting down with Detective (Brandon) Price,” said Kerry Winter, 56, the cousin who has spearheaded an acrimonious, billion-dollar lawsuit against Sherman for well over a decade. Price is one of the investigators with the Toronto Homicide squad and Winter’s lawyer, Brad Teplitsky, has been in contact with the detective.

“I had absolutely nothing to do with Barry and Honey’s death. Zero. I want to put that on the record,” Winter said in an interview with the Star Thursday.

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As to an alibi, during the period in mid-December when the Shermans were likely killed, Winter was at a12-step program for Cocaine Anonymous the evening of the day they were last seen alive, and at work as a construction site manager the next day. In between, he said he watched an episode of Peaky Blinders on Netflix, and slept. He lives by himself.

Winter said he still doubts the police determination that the Sherman deaths were murder and made the incredible accusation in an interview with the Star that Barry Sherman twice asked him in the 1990s to kill Honey.

“He asked me in his office at Apotex. I was surprised he would ask me,” said Winter. Asked by the Star if he ever told the police of this alleged request to kill Honey Sherman, Winter said he did not, but he did tell two friends. He said he did not tell his brothers then, but has recently.

Toronto police have yet to interview the cousins, but Kerry Winter said he will be interviewed as early as Thursday.

The Shermans were found dead in their North Toronto home on Friday, Dec. 15. They were strangled, then held upright by leather belts looped around the stainless steel railing of their home’s indoor pool. It is likely they were killed a day or two before, having last been seen alive the afternoon of Dec. 13. No ties were found at the scene. The house was for sale and a key to the house was located in a lockbox at one of the doors.

Barry Sherman was involved in a great deal of litigation and at any given time, one case or another had a key date, perhaps a decision, a delay, or a judgment. For example, around this time, Sherman was suing a convicted fraud artist for allegedly pulling a $150,000 scam on him. In December, court documents reveal arrangements were being made for both sides in that case to be grilled by opposing lawyers, known as “discoveries” in legal jargon.

But a much bigger case, and one that had for years dominated the Sherman-Winter family, and made headlines, had hit a milestone in the fall. On Sept. 15, 2017, Justice Kenneth Hood of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice had ruled against the Winter cousins’ attempt to obtain 20 per cent of the Apotex company.

No need for a trial, Justice Hood ruled, ending the case. He called it “wishful thinking” on behalf of the cousins. Then, he ruled that the cousins would have to pay legal costs to Sherman and he gave a short date for submissions from both sides. Sherman’s lawyers had until Sept. 29 to provide their recommendation of what Sherman was owed, along with a “bill of costs” and “any offers” to settle the matter. Kerry Winter and the other cousins had to provide their suggestion by Oct. 16.

Sources close to the case say that Sherman’s side suggested in excess of $1 million.

On Dec. 6, Justice Hood ordered a $300,000 cost award against cousins Kerry Winter, Paul Barkin, Jeffrey Barkin and Julia Winter (she was representing her late husband, Dana Winter, in the suit).

At some point in December, the cousins appealed the ruling by Justice Hood, which would have the effect of delaying the cost award. What the cousins want, sources say, is a ruling on appeal that would allow them to make their case for a share of the Apotex wealth.

What led up to this decade-long court case traces its roots to the 1960s. When Barry Sherman’s father died, Barry became very close with his uncle, Louis Winter. Louis was the father of the four cousins. Then Louis died leaving behind his drug company, Empire Laboratories, where Barry worked. Eventually Barry and a friend bought Empire, then sold Empire and created Apotex in the early 1970s. It’s a generic drug business that has been wildly successful. Barry Sherman’s estimated wealth at time of death was $4.7 billion.

The issues in this case have been played and replayed in a mound of court documents but this is what they boil down to. The cousins allege that Barry, who sold Empire and founded Apotex, had a fiduciary responsibility to his cousins and their reasoning is laid out in documents that fill boxes in a University Ave. courthouse. Barry Sherman said he did not, and the courts agreed last September, though it is now under appeal.

The cousins were hoping for close to $1 billion. Now they have been ordered to pay $300,000.

Det.-Sgt. Susan Gomes during a press conference at Police Headquarters, January 26, 2018.

Toronto Police have ruled the Sherman deaths a “targeted” homicide. They have executed, or attempted to execute, search warrants at 20 locations in an attempt to glean information helpful to the probe. As of this week, no search warrants were filed related to Kerry Winter’s home.

In a wide-ranging interview, Winter said he is looking forward to speaking with the Toronto Police to clear his name.

The Star took Winter through his days in mid-December, around the time that the Shermans likely died. They were last seen late in the afternoon of Dec. 13.

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Winter said that night, he attended the 12-step program. He has been clean and sober, he says, for six years. He said he then went home and watched on episode of the Peaky Blinders television show on Netflix, and went to bed. “I probably spoke to my girlfriend long distance.”

The next day, Thursday, Winter said he got up at 6:15 a.m., showered, shaved and headed to his job as a construction supervisor for six custom homes being built north of the city, at Yonge Street and Highway 7.

According to sources close to the case, the Shermans were likely killed between Wednesday night and late Thursday afternoon.

“Absolutely I could not go AWOL (at work) because we are in regular contact through text, email or sometimes phone calls. There’s no way between six in the morning on Thursday and six in the evening on Thursday, I’ve got a full alibi . . . with many different trades seeing me in and out of houses.”

Asked by the Star if he had ever been to the Old Colony Rd. home where the Shermans were killed, he said he had not.

During the interview, Winter said that despite the determination of double murder made by both the Toronto police and the Sherman family’s private investigative team, he still believes that Barry Sherman killed his wife, then himself.

Though he cannot remember the date, Winter said that in the 1990s, on two separate occasions during a visit to Barry Sherman’s office at Apotex, he recalls Sherman asking him to make arrangements to kill Honey. At the time, by his own admission, Winter said he was heavily into drugs and the street culture.

“Back in the mid ’90s, we had a discussion in his office at Apotex,” Winter said. Asked what led to the discussion, Winter said: “His disdain for his wife, Honey. His unhappiness in his marriage and that he couldn’t stomach to be in the same room as her.”

Asked by the Star if he believes the comments he alleges were made in the 1990s held true in 2017. “They could have kissed and made up,” he said.

Winter said he never told police, but told two close friends.

“I was quite surprised. I wasn’t surprised that he had this idea, I was quite surprised that he was asking me if I knew someone who would do that,” Winter said, though he later conceded he was likely asked because “I was on the street, I was on drugs at the time and I knew a lot of bad people.”

Winter said he is six years clean of drugs and no longer knows “bad people.”

“I’m six years sober, I’m a wonderful father, I work full time, I haven’t done a drink or drug in six years. I view myself as rehabilitated and recovered. I no longer associate with street people, drug dealers, criminals.”

Two deaths were reported at the home of Canadian billionaire Barry Sherman and his wife Honey on Dec. 15. Toronto police say the deaths are being treated as suspicious. (The Canadian Press)

Over the course of the litigation between the cousins and Sherman, Sherman has cut off funding to the cousins that he maintained for many years. In Kerry Winter’s case, a number of loans that Sherman advanced were cancelled and the properties sold to pay back Sherman. The last home was sold under power of sale in 2015. The majority of the loan callbacks happened soon after the lawsuit began a decade ago.

As to his ongoing belief that it was a murder-suicide — not double murder as police have determined — Winter is dismissive of the determination by both police and the private investigation team. He said the police ruled it as double murder, bending to pressure from lawyer Brian Greenspan and the private team he assembled. Winter said it was “Brian Greenspan’s spin” that led to the determination of murder. On the first day of the investigation, sources told the media that it was a murder-suicide.

“Good for them, good for the Toronto police,” said Winter. “They’re doing a swell job.”

As to how the death of Barry Sherman will affect the lawsuit, which is now under appeal, Winter lawyer Teplitsky said:

“Now that Barry is passed away there won’t be a trial on the fiduciary duty (issue),” Teplitsky said. If they do succeed on appeal, he hopes there will be a ruling on other issues that will assist his clients financially.

Kevin Donovan can be reached at kdonovan@thestar.ca or 416-312-3503

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