A young Vancouver man awaiting trial on drug trafficking charges was shot to death in Richmond Monday night.

Calvin Chi Hang Zhao, 21, was killed just before 9:30 p.m. in the 7000-block of Ash Street.

He was found sitting in a black Jeep sports utility vehicle, Integrated Homicide Investigation Team Cpl. Meghan Foster said.

“The male victim died as a result of his injuries at scene,” she said.  “It is early in the investigation, and while investigators work to determine the motive for the shooting, it appears the homicide was targeted.”

Investigators are looking for a white sport utility vehicle seen fleeing the scene of the shooting. Police will provide more details of the suspect vehicle when they confirm its make and model.

Said Foster: “The selfish act of homicide is one that puts the public at risk, and creates an elevated level of concern for police. For this reason, we need those who have information, to come forward and contact us”.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the IHIT at 1-877-551-4448 or by ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca

Zhao was charged in September 2015 with possession for the purpose of trafficking, resisting arrest and flight from a peace officer. He was due in Vancouver Provincial Court on Jan. 13 for a pre-trial conference. And he was also still before the courts on a July 2015 charge of possession of a controlled substance. That case was due back in court in February.

Edmonton Police are investigating the double-murder of two young B.C. men linked to the Lower Mainland gang conflict.

Navdeep Sidhu, 24 and Harman Mangat, 22, were found inside a vehicle in Southeast Edmonton on Wednesday. They had been shot.

I wrote a story two year ago about the lawsuit file by the government.

Here’s that story:

Two cars allegedly used in shootout may be seized; Suit details what police say led up to confrontation

Vancouver Sun 
Wed Jan 7 2015 
Page: A4 
Section: Westcoast News 
Byline: Kim Bolan 
Source: Vancouver Sun 

The B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office wants to keep two vehicles it alleges were involved in a gang shootout that left an Abbotsford teen dead last October.

In a statement of claim filed Dec. 22, the director of civil forfeiture alleges two Nissan Altimas – one white and one blue – were used by gun-toting members of rival crime groups the day Harwindip Baringh was shot to death.

No charges have been laid in the murder of the 18-year-old.

But the civil suit filed in B.C. Supreme Court lays out what police believe took place in the hours before the Oct. 2 targeted shooting.

Baringh was associated to the “Chahil crime group,” the court document says, and was driving with a passenger in a Jeep Grand Cherokee through a residential neighbourhood the evening he died.

About 6:37 p.m., the Jeep pulled over on Sparrow Drive and a blue 2007 Altima occupied by Baringh’s associates Navdeep Sidhu and Jaskarn Lally stopped beside it, the suit says.

“The passenger window of the blue Altima went down and a conversation took place between the occupants of the two vehicles. The Jeep then drove away and the blue Altima followed behind.”

About 7:45 the same night, surveillance cameras show the Jeep and the blue Altima following a white Acura and the white Altima.

“Mr. Baringh’s Jeep and the occupants of the blue Altima proceeded to follow the white Acura and the white Altima around a turn on Sparrow Drive where they were ambushed by occupants of the white Acura and the white Altima, whose vehicles were parked and blocking the road,” the director of civil forfeiture alleges.

Someone in the Acura got out and sprayed the Jeep with gunfire … An occupant or occupants of Mr. Baringh’s Jeep shot back at the occupants of the white Acura and Altima.”

The blue Altima pulled up closer to the Jeep and “more gun shots were exchanged between the occupants of the four vehicles.” Both Altimas and the Acura took off while the Jeep remained on Sparrow Drive.

Abbotsford Police received the 911 calls about shots fired around 7:46 p.m. and attended the scene to find Baringh’s body inside the Jeep.

“The police found numerous used bullet casings in close proximity to the Jeep,” the suit says. “The police also found several houses in the area of the shooting that had bullet holes penetrating their exterior.”

Investigators obtained search warrants for the two Altimas on Oct. 13. There’s no information in the suit about who owns the Acura and why it was not seized.

The white Altima is registered to Gurmail Brar, who told police his son Darshpreet was the car’s only driver. The director alleges the younger Brar is associated to the Dhaliwal crime group.

“The white Altima has been used to engage in a violent ongoing gang conflict between the Dhaliwal and Chahil crime groups and is a recognized target in that conflict,” the suit says.

“The white Altima was used to facilitate the murder of Mr. Baringh and the attempted murder of his associates and if released is likely to be used to engage in weapons offences and further violent crimes involving firearms.”

When police searched the blue Altima owned by Navdeep Sidhu, they found “bullet holes in the passenger quarter panel and windshield post that had been repaired with bondo putty. The windshield also contained a bullet hole on the bottom of the passenger side.”

The civil forfeiture director said the blue car “was used to conspire against and seek out associates of the Dhaliwal crime group that the occupants of the blue Altima were engaged in a violent conflict with.

“If returned to Mr. Sidhu, (the car) is likely to be used by him or his associates to commit further firearms offences and violent crimes that are likely to cause death or serious bodily harm.”

No statement of defence has yet been filed in the case.

The Canada Border Services Agency announced today that agents seized just under 17 kilograms of cocaine from a woman’s car in October at the Pacific Highway crossing.

The news release said the woman entering Canada was referred for a secondary examination on Oct. 23, 2016. “Border services officers examined the traveller’s vehicle and discovered two bricks of suspected cocaine,” the CBSA said. “The traveller was immediately arrested and afforded her rights. The examination of the vehicle continued and an additional 15 bricks were discovered and seized.”

The total amount of cocaine seized was 16.85 kilograms. It was turned over to Surrey Mounties, along with the woman.

“Our border services officers work diligently to protect our borders from those who try to infiltrate our country with illegal narcotics. We are committed to keeping our communities safe,” CBSA official Linell Redmond said.

There was no information provided about charges or why it took the CBSA almost three months to release details of the seizure.

In 2015, there were 301 narcotic seizures at the Pacific Highway Port of Entry. In 2016, there were 574 narcotic seizures. 

There have been  two Metro Vancouver murders so far this year – both of them in Richmond.

Homicide investigators were called to a business park on Viking Way near Cambie Road about 6:30 a.m. Monday where they found a dead man and a suspect. No charges have been laid yet.

Here’s my story:

B.C.’s anti-gang squad announced late Friday afternoon that two Ontario men had been charged after allegedly coming to Metro Vancouver as hired hitmen. They didn’t identify who the men were suspected of targeting.

I managed to get one of those names Monday by getting a copy of the indictment in the case. I was surprised to learn that one of the Ontario men allegedly made an attempt to kill Hells Angel Damion Ryan in Richmond on April 10, 2015. The identify of the other target of the purported murder plot is unknown, the indictment says,

Here’s my story:

I earlier reported on the bid by Hells Angels David Giles, Bryan Oldham and their associates Shawn Womacks and James Howard to have their convictions related to a cocaine conspiracy stayed due to trial delays.

My colleague Keith Fraser reported on the ruling Thursday by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross. She dismissed the application.

Here’s his story:

I was out in Abbotsford at a parole board hearing for convicted killer and new mother Kelly Ellard, so wasn’t able to be at the Giles and friends’ case.

I do hope to cover their sentencing hearings when they get underway later this month. Howard’s hearing starts Jan. 24.  Giles is scheduled for March 2 and 3. Oldham’s is set for March 9 and Womacks’ sentencing will take place March 20.

Two parole board members were tasked with deciding Wednesday whether or not convicted killer Kelly Ellard should be allowed to have up to five escorted temporary absences a month to take her new baby into the community for doctors’ appointment and “socialization.” The Correctional Service of Canada officer at the Abbotsford hearing recommended Ellard be granted the ETAs, which last up to four hours, for a period of 90 days.

But after more than two hours of asking Ellard questions about her murder of teen Reena Virk in 1997 and about the insight she now has into the crime, Kim Polowek and Catherine Dawson were deadlocked. 

They couldn’t decide whether the controversial killer should be given these community visits. So two other parole board members will do it all again in a couple of weeks.

I broke the story in October about Ellard being pregnant after having conjugal visits with her federal parolee boyfriend Darwin Dorozan. He’s since had his parole revoked.

But that was the first time I had ever seen Ellard in person. She expressed remorse and cried as she described the brutal murder of Virk. She also cried when she described how having a new baby had changed her life for the better. 

Here’s my story:

Killer Kelly Ellard’s ‘best therapy’ being a new mom as parole board splits on temporary leave bid

ABBOTSFORD — Notorious killer Kelly Ellard says she sees “the world with different eyes” since becoming a mother about two months ago.

She told two parole board members at a hearing Wednesday that her baby has completely changed her outlook, making her feel more confident and giving her hope for the future.

That new outlook won’t help her bid for limited release from prison — the board members deadlocked on whether to allow Ellard to temporarily leave prison to take her baby into the community.

Earlier, Ellard wept when she talked about the infant, whom she described only as her child.

Postmedia has learned the baby is a boy. He is living with Ellard at the Fraser Valley Institution where she’s serving a life sentence for murdering Reena Virk almost 20 years ago.

“I can’t even talk about this baby without crying,” Ellard said, breaking down and wiping her eyes. ‘’It’s been very therapeutic so far, very calming … It’s very motivating for me. It’s the best therapy for me.”

Ellard was convicted of second-degree murder for brutally beating and drowning Virk under a Victoria bridge when both were just teens.

Ellard had requested the board grant her up to five escorted temporary absences from prison each month, so she could take the baby to medical appointments and socialize him in the community.

But after grilling Ellard for two hours, board members Kim Polowek and Catherine Dawson said they couldn’t reach a decision.

Parole Board spokesman Patrick Storey said afterwards it was rare for board members to be deadlocked. He said a new panel with two new members will hear Ellard’s case again within a few weeks. 

Parole Board spokesman Patrick Storey, pictured Wednesday, says a new two-member board panel will hear Kelly Ellard’s request for escorted temporary absences from jail in a few weeks.

Ellard, now 34, said the joys of motherhood were unexpected.

Polowek told Ellard she had concerns about her relationship with the baby’s father, a criminal who had his parole revoked last August.

He wasn’t named at the hearing, but Postmedia earlier confirmed his identity as Darwin Dorozan.

Ellard said her “partner” had been doing well on parole, working two jobs, staying away from drugs and inspiring her to live better.

She said she doesn’t know all the details about why he was sent back to prison because they now have limited contact.

“What happened was very disappointing to me,” Ellard said. “I don’t have the level of confidence I once had.”

Ellard spent the first part of the hearing recalling the night that she and other teens first attacked and then killed Virk under the Craigflower Bridge in November 1997.

She admitted she threw the first punch that night and later rolled a bloodied and unconscious Virk towards the water, where she drowned.

“I had lit the lighter by her face. She didn’t look the way she did when she was walking away,” Ellard said, adding there was blood in Virk’s eyes. “Her hair was stuck to her face. It was something you don’t forget.”

She denied the version of events presented in court by her co-accused Warren Glowatski, who said Ellard held Virk’s head under the water.

“I asked Warren to help me bring her to the water and splash water on her face,” Ellard said Wednesday.

She said she wanted to see if Virk would “wake up.”

Asked about her thoughts that night, Ellard said she was fearful of getting caught and going to jail when she realized how seriously Virk was hurt.

“I had kind of gone on autopilot at that point,” she said.

She cried when she described the pain she caused Virk’s family.  

Reena Virk was 14 years old when she was killed in November 1997.

“It’s obviously devastating. What can I say? … I don’t think sorry is good enough. I mean their life is completely ruined,” she said. “I feel terribly guilty and ashamed and I wish there was something I could do to make it better.”

No one from either Virk’s or Ellard’s families attended the hearing, which was held in a room with children’s toys at the back and butterflies all over the walls.

Ellard, dressed in a grey sweater and pants, wore her hair in a pony tail and had small hoop earrings.

Her lawyer Sarah Rauch, who had tried to exclude reporters from the hearing, said the temporary absences were necessary for Ellard’s “successful reintegration” into the community.

“The timing right now is perfect for Ms. Ellard to get escorted temporary absences,” she said.

“She has been inside since she was a child.”

Last May, another parole board panel denied Ellard day parole, but accepted that she was finally taking responsibility for killing Virk.

Postmedia News revealed in October that Ellard was eight months pregnant after being allowed conjugal visits with Dorozan despite his lengthy criminal history.

Ellard had three trials before she was finally convicted in 2005. She was first found guilty in 2000, but the B.C. Court of Appeal ordered a new trial. The second time around the jury couldn’t reach a verdict and a mistrial was declared. 

Though she was 15 when she killed Virk, Ellard was raised to adult court and was sentenced to life with no hope of parole for seven years.

Last May, the Parole Board of Canada denied Ellard day parole, saying that while she was finally admitting some responsibility for Virk’s death, there was “ongoing minimization” of her crime.

And the two board members told Ellard that they were concerned about her admitted drug use inside prison, as well as “your lack of insight into why you committed the murder and your sense of entitlement with respect to parole.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

Blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

Twitter.com/kbolan

Another Metro Vancouver gangster has been deported to a country that he left as a youth. Barzan Tilli-Choli, of the UN Gang, was sent to Iraq this week after finishing his sentence for plotting to kill the Bacons. He was 17 when he came to Canada in 1999. Last year, both gang associates Jimi Sandhu and Adam Lam were ordered deported. Sandhu was just seven when he came to Canada. Lam was just a toddler. 

I hope young guys thinking of choosing this path who aren’t Canadian citizens realize the potential consequences go far beyond jail.

Here’s my story:

 A high-ranking member of the United Nations gang has been deported to his native Iraq after finishing his sentence for plotting to kill the Bacon brothers.

Postmedia has learned that Barzan Tilli-Choli, who came to Canada as a teenager in 1999, was transported to Iraq on Tuesday by officers with the Canada Border Services Agency.

On Monday, he left Kent prison in the Fraser Valley, where he was serving his term after pleading guilty in July 2013 to conspiracy to commit murder.

His deportation was not a surprise.

Two years ago, Immigration and Refugee Board member Marc Tessler told Tilli-Choli he had no choice but to order the gangster’s removal from Canada because of his serious conviction and the fact he was not a Canadian citizen.

Then last August, two Parole Board of Canada members concluded that there was no need to keep Tilli-Choli incarcerated beyond his statutory release date this month because he was going to be deported to Iraq.

They were provided with a psychologist’s report from July that said Tilli-Choli was “a low risk of re-offending if you are to be removed to your home country, although your risk would be significantly higher if you were to remain in Canada.”

Tilli-Choli also provided the parole board with support letters from relatives in Iraq. 

Barzan Tilli-Choli in undated jail photo

He was sentenced to 14 years minus almost nine years as double credit for the 4½ years he spent in pre-trial custody, for a net term of five years and three months.

Tilli-Choli was later identified in a related prosecution as the shooter who blasted an AK-47 at Jonathan Barber in Burnaby in May 2008, killing the stereo installer who had been mistaken for one of the Bacons.

When Tilli-Choli was arrested in March 2009, he had photos of the Bacons on his iPhone. He was also captured on wiretaps attempting to get a gun for an attack on a limousine the Bacons were in following a January 2009 concert in downtown Vancouver.

“The Pigs gangsters are here, man,” Tilli-Choli said in the recording. He also said that whoever was in the limo “is gonna get” shot.

A month later, Tilli-Choli and others shot up the vehicle of another Bacon associate outside T-Barz strip club in Surrey.

Tilli-Choli was born in the Kurdistan province of Iraq and came to Canada as a 17-year-old.

Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton, of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said Tilli-Choli is just one of several gangsters living in B.C. who have recently been deported because of serious criminality.

“We have seen several people and families come to Canada in the past and they make the choice to involve themselves in gangs, organized crime, and violent lifestyles,” Houghton said. “These choices not only lead to tragic ends for many of those involved, but can also lead to those people being removed from Canada.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

The sentencing process finally began Tuesday for those convicted last September in the cocaine conspiracy case involving Kelowna Hells Angels and some of their associates. We know that Kevin Van Kalkeren, one of the masterminds of the plot, pleaded guilty last year and got sentenced to 16 years.

Crown prosecutor Chris Greenwood said today that James Howard, who as an investor with key responsibilities in the plot, should get a 15 year sentence. He’s been out of jail since shortly after his arrest in 2012, so he had no (or very little) pretrial credit earned.

His lawyer will make defence submissions on March 1.

Here’s my story:

Crown wants 15 year sentence for Hells Angel associate in B.C. cocaine conspiracy

A Hells Angels associate convicted last fall in a massive cocaine conspiracy should spend 15 years in prison, federal prosecutor Chris Greenwood said Tuesday.

Greenwood told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross that James Howard played a “very significant” role in the plot to smuggle half a tonne of cocaine into Canada in 2012.

What Howard didn’t know was that the purported South American coke brokers negotiating with his gang were actually undercover cops who orchestrated a reverse sting over months.

The police received a $4-million down payment, then delivered a kilo of real cocaine and 199 kilos of fake product to a Burnaby warehouse on Aug. 25, 2012 as Howard and his co-accused were arrested.

On Sept. 30, Ross convicted Howard of conspiracy to traffic cocaine and possession for the purpose of trafficking. Also convicted were full-patch Hells Angels David Giles and Bryan Oldham and associate Shawn Womacks, who will be sentenced in March.

Greenwood said Howard was part of “the upper echelon of the drug trade” and a conspiracy to buy 500 kilos of cocaine “intended to be the first in a series of transactions.”

“I don’t suggest that Mr. Howard is the mastermind of this sophisticated organization, but I do say that his profession is in the business of trafficking drugs,” Greenwood said.

“He was a partner in the trafficking scheme. He was responsible for transportation, for supervising employees he described as his crew and he had an ownership interest in the product and the profits that were going to be achieved.”

Howard got involved in the plot in May 2012, months after Giles and Kevin Van Kalkeren, who earlier pleaded guilty, unwittingly met the undercover cops who would be their undoing.

Greenwood said a stiff sentence would provide appropriate deterrence and denunciation given the scale of the cocaine operation in the case

“The damage done to the community by large-scale trafficking in my submission is profound,” Greenwood said.

“The proliferation of cocaine and other hard drugs affects communities across Canada. And I would submit with respect that your ladyship doesn’t have to go far from this courtroom to see some of those problems.”

Greenwood said Howard had been involved in the drug trade for six years before the 2012 sting, but had no convictions.

At one point, “he told the undercover police officers that he was passionate about what he was doing, reflecting his level of commitment,” Greenwood said.

Howard travelled to Los Angeles after meeting the cops “to set up a structure to transport cocaine” when the plan was to pick up the drugs there.

He attended meetings with his co-conspirators, communicated in encrypted messages, assembled the team to process the cocaine, paid for their radios and provided BlackBerrys for his workers, Greenwood said.

Howard was in charge of distributing the cocaine and planned to sell it in Alberta.

He was so worried about security that he made sure not all his crew members had details of the deal “so they didn’t have to worry about anyone ratting.”

Greenwood said Howard clearly could have been successful if he’d chosen a legitimate path in life.

“You are dealing with a mature individual who possessed life skills and who was aware of the illegality and the risks involved but was committed to a course of illegal action over many weeks and that is the context in which the moral responsibility for this offence arises,” he said.

Ross adjourned Howard’s sentencing hearing to March 1.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Abbotsford Police are investigating a shooting Tuesday evening that left two men with injuries.

Sgt. Judy Bird said in a news release that police got called about 6:20 p.m. about possible shots fired in the area of Countess Avenue and South Fraser Way.

A few minutes later, they got more calls about a two-vehicle collision at Peardonville Road and Clearborook Road.

Two men believed to have been shot and then involved in the crash were driven to hospital by a citizen who stopped to help.

“Both males remain in hospital where they are receiving treatment for their injuries,” Bird said.

 Two people in the vehicle that was struck received minor injuries and one remains in hospital for observation, she said.

 The Major Crime Unit of the Abbotsford Police Department is investigating.

The shooting comes less than 24 hours after a young man was killed in a targeted shooting in Surrey.

Karanpartap Waraich, 22, was hit as he drove in the 12900-block of 96 Avenue and crashed his vehicle into the golden arches of a McDonalds.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is now investigating.

“Mr. Waraich is known to police and evidence to this point suggests this was a targeted homicide,” S. Sgt. Jennifer Pound said. “There are many more investigative avenues that IHIT needs to concentrate on and we are looking to speak with any witnesses who may not have already come forward to police.  Thankfully, there were no other victims as a result of this brazen shooting.”

It’s been a violent couple of weeks with other shootings in Surrey, Abbotsford and south Vancouver.

Police in the Lower Mainland and into Alberta are looking for links between recent shootings and murders. There were two men shot Tuesday in Abbotsford. In that case, Abby Police are looking for a dark-coloured Ford Explorer  from the mid-2000s. And the night before gang-involved Karan Waraich was shot to death in Surrey. Waraich had survived a September 2015 shooting on the grounds of Strawberry Hill Elementary School. 

Here’s my story:

Surrey RCMP released details of another shooting Thursday – the region’s 12th so far this year.

Investigators responded to a shots fired call in the 12300-block of 91A Avenue about 9 p.m. Thursday.

^{Officers found evidence of a shooting at the scene.}

^{In a news release, Surrey Mounties said witnesses reported seeing a white pickup truck firing multiple shots at a white Mercedes sedan.}

^{“The white Mercedes has been located and had been struck multiple times. The occupant of the vehicle has been located unharmed,” the release said.}

^{The truck fled from the scene in an unknown direction of travel. Officers are canvassing the neighbourhood and talking to witnesses.}

 ^“The investigation is still in its early stages, but initial indications are that this a targeted incident.”

Anyone with information is asked to call 604-599-0502.

This is the fifth Surrey shooting this month, including Monday’s murder of Karanpartap Waraich on 96 Avenue.

The gun violence continued Friday night with a fatal shooting in Vancouver.

Vancouver Police officers were called to the Savoy Hotel, at 258 East Hastings Street, just before 10:30 p.m. where they found a man in his late 50s suffering from gunshot wounds.

He was rushed to hospital, but died a short time later, according to a release from the VPD.

The release said only that “it is very early in the investigation. No additional details are available at this time.”

If I learn more, I will post it. I am heading out of town in the morning so may not get more information for a bit.

A man was shot and killed at the hotel Friday, Jan. 27, 2017

For the third time this month, homicide investigators are probing the slaying of a man in Richmond.

The 22-year-old victim was “unresponsive” when he arrived at Richmond General Hospital just before midnight Friday.

“When officers arrived, the male was suffering from injuries consistent with foul play,” Richmond RCMP Cpl. Dennis Hwang said in a news release.  “Despite best efforts, he succumbed to his injuries and his death is considered a homicide.”

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has taken conduct of the investigation.

“This is believed to be a targeted homicide, and at this point in time, it is not believed to be related to the recent acts of violence Richmond has seen,” Hwang said. “IHIT will be working in partnership with the Richmond RCMP.”

Since Hwang’s release yesterday, no further details have been released.

I will update this if I get further information

Already this month in Richmond, Martin Shen, 43, was killed inside his office on Viking Way on Jan. 16.  De Kai Liang, 55, has been charged with second-degree murder. Police say the motive was a personal dispute.

And on Jan. 10, Vancouver resident Calvin Chi Hang Zhao was found shot to death in the 7000-block Ash Street in Richmond. No one has been charged.

Anyone with information about the latest murder is asked to contact IHIT at 1-877-551-4448 or ihittipline@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.

I am only posting this story now as I was out of town for the weekend. 

I have been trying to keep track of cases where applications have been made to throw out charges because of delays in getting to trial.

I wrote a feature about this in December which said there had been a number of applications made by defence lawyers since the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in July 2016 that trials should be completed within 18 months at the provincial court level and within 30 months at the superior court level or the charges should be stayed. 

On January 18, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross rejected one of these so-called Jordan applications in the case of Hells Angels David Giles and three others convicted in a massive drug case.

I just found this Vancouver Provincial Court case where Judge Gregory Rideout ordered charges to be stayed against an accused because of the delay his case took to get to trial.

Here’s my story:

Vancouver man’s 2013 gun and drug charges thrown out over trial delay

A man caught with a gun likely used in a Vancouver shooting has had his charges stayed because his case took too long to get to trial.

Brandon Akil Cooper was arrested on Nov. 28, 2013, in connection with a shooting that sent Shawn Brown to hospital a month earlier.

Cooper’s trial was set for March 2017, which his lawyer argued was beyond the time frame set out by a Supreme Court of Canada ruling last summer.

Provincial court Judge Gregory Rideout agreed, saying Cooper’s Charter rights were violated by the delay in going to trial.

Rideout said most of the delay in the case was because the prosecutor was late in disclosing police documents called ITOs used to get search warrants in the case.

“I find that the main causes of the delay in this case are the delay of the Crown in disclosing in a timely way the particulars of ITO #1 and of the significant and serious failure of the Crown to disclose in a timely way the particulars of ITO #2,” Rideout said in his Jan. 24 ruling.

“The failure to disclose the two ITOs in a timely manner was entirely in the hands of the Crown.”

He said the Crown offered no “exceptional circumstances” explaining the delay.

“The applicant’s right to be tried within a reasonable time as guaranteed by section 11(b) of the Charter has been infringed. A stay of proceedings is directed,” Rideout said.

Cooper, now 28, was one of four “persons of interest” identified by Vancouver police after Brown was shot near Fraser and East 17th Avenue on Oct. 25, 2013, during a suspected drug transaction.

“Through the use of surveillance, witness information, forensic evidence and source information obtained as a result of warrants, the persons of interest, including the applicant, became suspects in the shooting,” Rideout said.

Investigators got search warrants for a storage locker in Burnaby and a residence on Blundell Road in Richmond, where Cooper was arrested.

“During the course of his arrest, the applicant was observed dropping a pistol that was later seized. It was determined that this pistol was likely the pistol used to shoot Shawn Brown,” Rideout said in his ruling.

Police also “recovered a number of pistols, live rounds of ammunition, 11 cellular phones and three SIM cards” during the Richmond search.

At the Burnaby locker they found 24 containers of marijuana, more ammunition, Cooper’s ID and his fingerprints on one of the pot containers.

He was charged with seven firearms and drug trafficking counts, but not with shooting Brown.

Rideout noted that a DNA swab taken from Cooper “did not match DNA profiles recovered from exhibits found at the scene of the shooting.”

Cooper’s case would have concluded more than 39 months after he was charged as it was scheduled, Rideout said.

Canada’s highest court noted in its landmark 2016 ruling that cases at the provincial court level should conclude within 18 months unless there are extraordinary circumstances. Cases at the superior court level should be completed within 30 months, the SCC said.

Postmedia reported in December that there had been dozens of applications by accused to have their charges stayed in the months since the SCC ruling.

In Cooper’s case, Crown counsel James Cryder argued that the defence was responsible for some of the delay, as were scheduling difficulties at the provincial court.

But Rideout said less than three months of the total delay was the fault of the defence and that the courthouse at 222 Main St. was not unusually busy.

“This can be a busy courthouse but it is not a courthouse that is plagued by lengthy, persistent and notorious institutional delays,” Rideout said.

kbolan@postmedia.com

Blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

Twitter.com/kbolan

 A Greater Victoria man convicted of drug trafficking has lost his bid to have the charges thrown out because of trial delay.

Zachary Scott Matheson, 39, was charged in February 2014 with four counts of possession of cocaine, ecstasy and methamphetamines for the purpose of trafficking.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brian MacKenzie convicted him at the Victoria Law Courts on Dec. 8, 2016.

That led to an application by Matheson’s lawyer Bradley Hickford to have the charges stayed because the case ran longer than a new time limit set by a Supreme Court of Canada ruling last summer.

Canada’s highest court noted in the landmark ruling known as Jordan that cases at the provincial court level should conclude within 18 months unless there are extraordinary circumstances. Cases at the superior court level should be completed within 30 months.

Matheson’s case took about 33 months up to December’s verdict.

But MacKenzie said that once almost five months of delays caused by the defence were subtracted, the case fell within the 30-month range.

“In conclusion, I find that the defence is solely responsible for three distinct periods of delay, which total 144 days, or approximately four months and 24 days. Subtracting this number from the 1028 days that elapsed between the date of the charge and the end of the trial leaves a net delay of 884 days, or 29 months,” MacKenzie said in his Feb. 1 ruling. “This falls below the 30-month ceiling established in Jordan.”

He also said “the defence has not sought to establish, in my view realistically, that this is one of those rare, clear cases which nonetheless merits a stay of proceedings even though the net delay falls below the presumptive ceiling.”

“I thus conclude that Mr. Matheson’s right to be tried within a reasonable time under s. 11(b) of the Charter has not been infringed.”

MacKenzie said the Crown had established there were some exceptional circumstances that accounted for some of its delay in the case.

Matheson was first arrested in June 2013 after an investigation by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit.

Charges were approved against him and co-accused Ali Arash Ziaee eight months later.

At the time of their arrest, CFSEU referred to them as “high-level” Vancouver Island drug traffickers and said over $500,000 worth of drugs were seized after two search warrants were executed in the case.

“Matheson has a lengthy criminal record for property, drug, and violence-related offences and is well-known to police for his criminal associations on Vancouver Island,” CFSEU Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton said at the time.

Ziaee earlier pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two and a half years in jail.

A date will now be set for Matheson’s sentencing.

Long before Seattle Judge James L. Robart became a household name Friday for blocking U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration ban, he was well known to some B.C. criminals.

Over the last decade, Robart, of the U.S. District C0urt, has presided over the cases of several local residents caught in the U.S. for drug smuggling and other crimes.

Trump attacked Robart after the Republican-appointed judge ruled that Washington had standing to challenge Trump’s order and that the state “has met its burden in demonstrating immediate and irreparable injury.”

In December 2016, Robart sentenced B.C. grandmother Tina Howe to 80 months in jail after she pleaded guilty to smuggling tens of thousands of ecstasy pills into the U.S. in 2007.

She claimed she only drove the pills across the border to protect her son, who was indebted to B.C. drug traffickers.

Metro Vancouver woman Jasmin Klair told Robart at her 2012 sentencing hearing that she regretted that she had glamourized drug use and the money she got from trafficking.

He told her that the glamour would soon wear off when she was spending 21 months behind bars.

Klair, then 21, was caught months earlier with 11 kilograms of cocaine near Blaine’s Smuggler’s Inn after U.S. Homeland Security agents received a tip about possible smuggling activity in the area.

Her accomplices, Narinder Kaler and Gurjit Singh Sandhu, both 25, were intercepted by agents as they arrived at the inn later that day to collect the coke.They made a run for it, but were grabbed before they could cross back into Canada.

Robart sentenced Kaler to 4.5 years in jail and Sandhu to two years.

The year before, Robart called out B.C. gun smuggler Oliver King for his “pattern of lying” after he was caught with 21 firearms south of the border. King, who also went by the name Hamid Malekpour, was handed a six-years sentence.

In April 2010, Robart sentenced Langley’s Bradley Keith Bourque to a decade behind bars for smuggling ecstasy into Washington state.

Robart said that while Bouque had pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to distribute ecstasy, the hidden compartment in his pickup was proof that he had either made previous smuggling trips or planned others in the future.

And when the now famous judge sentenced cocaine conspirator Charles Lai to 13 years in June 2009, he said “if you are dealing with millions of dollars in drugs and guns, it often leads to violence.”

He also referenced Metro Vancouver’s gang war at the time, telling Lai that because of his incarceration, he would “not be dead in the next two years, which in what I have seen in Canadian drug dealing, is becoming more common.”

The Crown opened its case against accused United Nations gang killer Cory Vallee Monday. Most of the case will be admissions – including wiretaps and video surveillance. There will also be four former UN gangsters testifying against Vallee. Their identities are protected by a publication ban and they will only be known as Witnesses A, B, C and D.

You’ll recall that I covered a voir dire application in November and December in which Vallee’s lawyer was trying to get videotaped statements he made to undercover police after his August 2014 arrest thrown out. There is still no ruling on that application. 

Here’s my story on the Crown’s opening submissions:

Jamie Bacon (left) and Kevin LeClair in an undated photo.

Cory Vallee trial: Victim had quit UN gang to join Bacon brothers, prosecutor says

Before he was gunned down eight years ago Monday, Kevin LeClair had quit the United Nations to join the Bacon brothers and their Red Scorpion gang, a Crown prosecutor told B.C. Supreme Court on Monday.

David Jardine said in his opening submissions at the murder trial of Cory Vallee that LeClair was a target of the UN because he knew the gang’s secrets.

Jardine said two ex-UN members now co-operating with the Crown are expected to testify about how LeClair made it onto the gang’s hit list.

“I expect they will say that Kevin LeClair had been a member of the UN,” Jardine told Justice Janice Dillon. “He quit the UN and started associating himself with the Bacon brothers.”

That made LeClair “a higher risk for the UN gang … because he knew them, knew what they looked like and some of the residences or the addresses that they were associated with,” Jardine said. “So he accordingly was one of their targets.”

LeClair was fatally wounded in the parking lot of a Langley mall on Feb. 6, 2009.

Jardine said several UN gangsters were out hunting LeClair and the Bacon brothers in two vehicles that day.

“They spotted Mr. LeClair’s truck driving past them and they followed it. They followed it to the Thunderbird Village Mall where Mr. LeClair went into the Browns restaurant,” Jardine said. 

Bacon associate Kevin LeClair was shot to death on Feb. 6, 2009 in Langley. UN gangster Cory Vallee is charged with first-degree murder.

One of the UN men parked his car so he could see when LeClair left the restaurant. A van, containing one of the Crown witnesses, Vallee and a man named Jesse Adkins, was also in the mall parking lot.

“At 4 p.m., LeClair was seen exiting the restaurant and Adkins and Vallee then … exited the van and ran to shoot Mr. LeClair,” Jardine said. “You will hear witnesses this week describing two men shooting and murdering LeClair while he was trying to get away in his vehicle.”

He said the two murder weapons — a 9-millimetre and an AR-15 rapid-fire gun — were left in the parking lot.

Vallee is charged with the first-degree murder of LeClair, as well as conspiracy to kill the Bacon brothers over several months in 2008 and ’09. He fled to Mexico, where police located him in August 2014 and sent him back to B.C.

Jardine also described the war between the UN and the Bacon brothers that escalated after the murder of popular UN member Duane Meyer on May 8, 2008 in Abbotsford.

“His death brought the conflict between the two groups to a head,” Jardine said.

Within 24 hours of Meyer’s murder, there were three retaliatory shootings in Burnaby by UN gangsters and associates, he said.

The violence culminated that day when stereo-installer Jonathan Barber was shot to death in the 7400-block Kingsway as he drove a vehicle belonging to one of the Bacon brothers.

Barber, who had no involvement in gang life, had met Jonathan Bacon in the parking lot of a nearby McDonald’s to pick up his Porsche Cayenne to install a new sound system.

His girlfriend was driving behind him when she was also wounded in the shooting.

Jardine said the Crown’s case would consist of admissions, audio and video surveillance, statements from witnesses at the scene of LeClair’s murder, as well as testimony from four former UN gangsters whose identities are shielded by a publication ban.

The judge-alone trial is expected to last several months at the Vancouver Law Courts building.

Already seven members and associates of the UN gang have been convicted of conspiracy to kill the Bacons. Two Calgary men are awaiting trial after being charged in the conspiracy a year ago.

And one-time UN leader Conor D’Monte is also facing murder and conspiracy charges in the case, but remains a fugitive after fleeing in 2011.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

I was back at the Cory Vallee murder trial Tuesday as Crown prosecutors read the admissions into the record that had already been agreed to by the defence. It was not the most gripping evidence – at least not until the afternoon.

That’s when prosecutors played eight clips from surveillance video inside the Brown’s Social House in the hour before Kevin LeClair was fatally shot (he died two days later in hospital.) It was very disturbing to watch LeClair with his friends, enjoying a final meal, completely oblivious to the fact that his killers were already waiting for him.

I felt sick as I watched him heading to the door of the restaurant, knowing what was about to happen. Vallee was watching the video too on a small screen in the prisoner’s box of courtroom 67.

Here’s my story:

Last hour before fatal gang shooting captured on eerie surveillance video

In gripping silent video footage of the last moments before Kevin LeClair was fatally shot, he sits with two friends at the bar of a Langley restaurant, eating, drinking and chatting.

LeClair, who was gunned down seconds after leaving Brown’s Social House on Feb. 6, 2009, first appears in the surveillance video just after 3 p.m. when he enters wearing a grey hoodie and wearing a man purse.

Prosecutors at the murder trial of accused United Nations gang killer Cory Vallee played the eerie footage Tuesday for B.C. Supreme Court Justice Janice Dillon.

Eight clips from different camera angles in the restaurant show LeClair and his friends taking a seat to the right of a horseshoe-shaped bar, looking at menus and then ordering.

Two other hoodied men arrive who know one of LeClair’s companions. He waves at them as they sit down on the opposite side of the bar.

Nothing appears out of the ordinary as customers come and go and staff attend to the men’s needs.

At one point, LeClair’s friend walks over to talk to the latecomers on the other side of the bar.

Just after 4 p.m., LeClair and one of his friends get up to leave and walk out of the frame of the camera pointed at the bar.

Less than a minute later – presumably when the shots rang out – others at the bar jump up, look towards the door and hurry off-screen.

A second video angle of the same time period shows LeClair walking out the front door, as a Brown’s worker touches a computer screen behind the host’s counter.

Seconds later, that worker suddenly looks out the window and others in the restaurant rush over. All of them are peering to the right, but hovering close to the restaurant.

One of LeClair’s friends reappears in the bar video, asks the bartender for a shot and slams it down before leaving.

Kevin LeClair’s bullet-ridden truck after he was fatally shot at the Thunderbird Village Mall on Feb. 6, 2009.

Crown prosecutor David Jardine said earlier that LeClair’s pickup truck was sprayed by gunfire just after he left the restaurant. The truck ended up on the curb in front of the IGA grocery store in the Thunderbird Village mall just off 200th Street and Highway 1.   

The Crown alleges that Vallee was among several UN members hunting LeClair because he had left their gang and joined the rival Red Scorpion gang, teaming up with the notorious Bacon brothers.

Jardine said in opening submissions that Vallee and another UN gangster lay in wait for LeClair that day after seeing his truck turn into the mall.

Vallee is charged with first-degree murder, as well as conspiracy to kill the Bacons and their associates over several months in 2008 and 2009.  

Cory Vallee is on trial for murder.

Vallee was charged in 2011, but hid in Mexico until police found him there in 2014.

Dillon was shown other video surveillance Tuesday taken from shops in the mall, as well as a nearby apartment building.

In one of the clips, two figures dressed in dark clothing can be seen running through the parking lot.

In other clips, two vehicles, like those the Crown alleges were used by the shooters, can be seen driving rapidly past the stores.

The judge-alone trial at the Vancouver Law Courts is expected to last until June.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan