A United Nations gang associate has pleaded guilty to conspiring to murder gangster Randy Naicker, and has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Sheldon Paine, 28, entered his plea and was sentenced Friday in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.

Associate Chief Justice Austin Cullen said the case would normally attract a much more severe sentence but there were “exceptional” circumstances involved. He noted the guilty plea, expressions of remorse from Paine and the accused’s plans to turn his life around.

In an agreed statement of facts read out in court, Crown counsel Gordon Matei said the murder of Naicker, 34, in June 2012 was a “highly sophisticated, coordinated” event that occurred on a busy public street in Port Moody with numerous members of the public exposed.

Paine was in the vicinity when two masked men shot Naicker multiple times at close range near St. Johns and Queens streets, before speeding away in a getaway vehicle.

Matei said Paine’s main role in the murder was to assist his close friend, Michael Jones, a member of the UN gang. Jones said the gang was trying to kill Naicker — a one-time high-ranking member of the Independent Soldiers gang — so Paine made efforts to locate him, the prosecutor said.

Sometime before the shooting, Paine drove Jones to Naicker’s building, where Jones accessed the parkade using a key fob and fixed a tracking device under Naicker’s vehicle, Matei told the judge.

On the day of the shooting, Paine drove Jones to Port Moody and they watched Naicker’s vehicle from a nearby location, Matei said. Paine heard shots fired and then saw the getaway vehicle speed by, with firearms being thrown from the getaway vehicle.

The murder was part of the ongoing gang conflict between the UN and Independent Soldiers, Matei said.

Len Doust, Paine’s lawyer, told the court that after the shooting there were several attempts on his client’s life, so Paine, who was facing unrelated firearms charges at the time, fled to South Africa. 

In November 2015, Paine was arrested in a suburb of Johannesburg and agreed to be extradited back to Canada. He returned in June.

Doust told the court that his client, who has no prior criminal record, had ambitions to restore his life and had had no contact with his former gang associates.

“He wants nothing to do with those people,” he said.

Doust said Paine had taken Bible studies in prison and “had found God.” He admitted such submissions are often used as a crutch in sentencing proceedings but in his client’s case, they were genuine and Paine had expressed remorse.

Paine told the court that he wanted to say he was sorry for ever getting involved in the gang lifestyle and taking part in the murder plot.

“I regret it every day. I’ve been trying my best to change my life,” he said.

In a victim impact statement read in court, Naicker’s father, Hemraj Naicker, said: “It’s so hard to find words to describe the pain, anger and despair that I felt from his murder. Randy’s murder has taken everything from me. I am unable to take joy from the simple pleasures of life.”

Cullen said the accused’s crime was part of “an example of a blatant act of extreme violence in the context of a conflict between criminal gangs and carried out in a very public venue where ordinary and uninvolved citizens were put at risk.”

The judge imposed a sentence of seven years in prison, but after giving Paine credit for pre-sentence custody, reduced the sentence to five years.

Jones and two other men are awaiting trial after being charged in the murder of Jonathan Bacon in Kelowna in 2011.

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Vancouver police have arrested and charged a man with assault and uttering threats following an alleged hate crime incident on Aug. 20 at a SkyTrain station.

Police say a 23-year-old man and his mother were walking towards the platform at the Broadway-City Hall station when a man tripped the woman. She had accidentally bumped into him moments before while getting off a bus.

“The man angrily made allegedly racist comments towards the woman causing her son to speak to him,” said Transit Police spokeswoman Anne Drennan. “This further enraged the man, which caused a passerby to intervene and ask him to stop speaking that way.”

The suspect, Peter Anthony Lee Gagen, then challenged the son and the passerby to a fight, which prompted the passerby to begin videoing the interaction on his cell phone.

Gagen allegedly charged at the Good Samaritan, grabbing him and pushing him against a glass wall, before leaving the station.

The victim suffered a bleeding scrape to his wrist and bruising, Drennan said.

Transit Police investigated the case along with the VPD and arrested Gagen at a gym in Kitsilano on Thursday.

Gagen, 50, is known to police. He was held in custody overnight and made a court appearance on Friday afternoon.

He has been released on a recognizance with conditions that include not to have any contact with the victims and not to be found in the Broadway-City Hall SkyTrain Station.

Transit Police continue to investigate the matter, liaising with the B.C. hate crimes team.

“While we would never recommend a citizen put him or herself in harm’s way, we commend the passerby/victim for his actions during this incident,” Drennan said.

A man is in hospital and police are investigating after a shooting in Vancouver late Friday night.

Around 11:30 p.m., a 27-year-old man was shot near East 3rd Avenue and Templeton Street. The man was found a short time later near Commercial Drive and East 1st Avenue, sitting in the driver’s seat of his vehicle with a gunshot wound.

The man was taken to hospital in serious condition but is expected to survive.

Investigators are still working to determine a motive for the shooting but have established that it was a targeted incident. No arrests have been made just yet.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call police at 604-717-2541 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Police in Vancouver are warning about a high-risk sex offender who now lives in the city.

Michael Wayne Carpenter, 45, is serving a 10-year supervision order after he was convicted on three counts each of sexual assault with a weapon, forcible confinement and uttering threats.

“Carpenter poses a risk of significant harm to the safety of vulnerable female children, youth and adults,” warned VPD spokesman Const. Brian Montague in a release Monday.

Police say Carpenter is living at a halfway house in Vancouver under a curfew and a long list of conditions, including:

– Not to consume, buy or possess drugs or alcohol;

–Not to own a computer or any device with access to the Internet, or to access pornography;

– Not to be in the presence of females under the age of 18, to to report all friendships and intimate relationships with women;

– Not to enter any private homes including hotels, rooming houses, SROs or vehicles;

– Not to go to Kamloops.

He is white, 5-foot-9, weighs 180 pounds and has short brown hair and blue eyes. 

Anyone who sees Carpenter in violation of his release conditions is asked to call 911. 

Two Abbotsford men alleged to be involved in the violent Townhill gang conflict are facing new gun and drug charges.

Rifle seized by CFSEU officers on Aug. 25 in Abbotsford.

Gagandeep Singh Sandhu, 23, has been charged with unauthorized possession of prohibited weapon, possession of a firearm knowing its possession is unauthorized, possession of a prohibited weapon with ammunition and possession of a controlled substance.

And Sukhvir Singh Sidhu, 24, is facing a single count of possession of a controlled substance. 

The latest charges were approved after officers with the B.C. Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit checked up on suspects involved in the conflict to ensure they were adhering to bail conditions on Aug. 25.

“Upon arrival at a residence in the 3200-block Sisken Drive, the uniform team members discovered marijuana in plain view in an open garage,” Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton said in a news release. “While conducting the curfew check, the officers also noticed an assault rifle. The two men in the house were arrested and the residence secured.” 

40 calibre handgun seized Aug. 25 by CFSEU.

After obtaining a search warrant for the house, police found an AR-15-variant semi-automatic mini-rifle, a .40-calibre handgun, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, brass knuckles, and bags containing pot, heroin and fake oxycodone.

“If individuals show disregard for the law and the safety of the public, our officers will be there to ensure that these individuals are dealt with by disrupting their criminal activities and taking their guns and drugs off the streets,” Houghton said. “Having charges approved against these individuals will now hold them accountable for their actions which have negatively impacted the residents of Abbotsford.” 

Drugs seized by CFSEU officers on Aug. 25 in Abbotsford.

Abbotsford Police Const. Ian MacDonald said his department “has utilized a variety of measures to suppress violence and to curtail incidents related to the Townline Hill conflict. We will continue to partner with CFSEU and our citizens to make our city safe.”

He said Monday that so far 35 people have been charged in connection with the investigation into the conflict.

The conflict is named for the area around Townline Road where two groups involved in the drug trade have been battling since 2014.

MacDonald said there have been 38 acts of violence linked to the conflict, including three fatal shootings.

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Just as his elder brother before him, Vancouver longshoreman Alvin Randhawa has pleaded guilty to being part of a cross-border cocaine smuggling ring.

Randhawa entered the guilty plea on Aug. 15 in Buffalo, New York, to a single count of conspiracy to export cocaine from the U.S.

The 35-year-old faces a mandatory minimum jail term of 10 years. A date for sentencing has not been set.

His brother Alexie, also a Vancouver dockworker, was arrested in California in 2008 with 107 kilograms of cocaine and pleaded guilty. He served four years in prison before returning to Canada and his job at the Port of Vancouver.

A third longshoreman brother, Arun Randhawa, is fighting the Canadian government after he was denied the security clearance needed for some port jobs because of the smuggling allegations against his brothers. His case will be heard in the Federal Court of Canada in January.

In the latest U.S. case, Alvin admitted that from July 2010 until May 2011, he conspired with others to possess and distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine in the U.S.

A large shipment of cocaine was seized from his Canadian group on Sept. 8, 2010, his plea agreement documents say, after which Alvin Randhawa and two others “began planning future smuggling runs from the United States to Canada.”

“These plans, which included retrofitting a false compartment into a tractor-trailer for the purpose of smuggling cocaine, resulted in a smuggling run in May 2011,” the documents, obtained by PostMedia, say. “Randhawa recruited an individual from Vancouver, British Columbia, to complete the false compartment.”

The person who made the secret compartment is not named in the U.S. court documents and has since died.

U.S. authorities later intercepted the tractor-trailer with 26 kilograms of cocaine hidden inside to be distributed to “customers” of Alvin Randhawa and his associates.

Investigators believe the sophisticated organization used several international bridges, including ones in the Buffalo-Niagara region, to smuggle approximately 2,000 kilograms of cocaine during the course of the conspiracy. One conspirator had a warehouse rented in California where the cocaine was placed inside the made-in-Vancouver compartment.

U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul said in a news release after Alvin Randhawa pleaded guilty that the “case represents a success against another major international narcotics trafficking organization — this time operating in Canada.”

“We will continue to work with all of our law enforcement partners to protect the threat posed by these dangerous substances.”

He said U.S. authorities worked with the Canada Border Services Agency, Ontario’s Peel Regional Police and Toronto Police during the investigation.

Government lawyer Michele Charles said Transport Canada was within its rights to deny Arun the special security clearance, even though he has no criminal record and denies any knowledge of his siblings’ criminal activity.

“The applicant was denied a marine transportation security clearance when it was discovered that, among other things, he remains in contact with his two brothers, both of whom are alleged executive members of an Indo-Canadian organized crime group who specialize in the trafficking of drugs across the Canadian-American border,” Charles said in her documents.

“There are some situations where the security of Canadian ports take precedence over an individual’s right to a marine transportation security clearance. This case is such an example.”

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A Surrey man who shot and killed his father has been found not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder.

Ryan William Beauchamp, who had schizophrenia for many years, was initially charged with second-degree murder in the August 2014 shooting of his dad, Edward Allen Bezell, 55.

According to the opinion of an expert witness, Beauchamp was experiencing hallucinatory noises of thumping and humming sounds during the night and in the morning before the fatal shooting at the Surrey rental house he shared with his dad.

Beauchamp, who was paranoid and believed people were attempting to kill him, heard a hallucinatory voice urging him to attack his father.

“He became focussed on his father and became angry and fearful of him because he believed his father was plotting to kill him,” B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown said in a ruling released Monday. “Mr. Beauchamp also suffered from the delusion that his father had caused or permitted him to be sexually abused by a drug dealer when he was five years old.”

Beauchamp initially attacked his dad with a knife and when the knife was wrestled away from him he went into the house, grabbed a shotgun and then shot his father in the chest. The dad died almost immediately.

Witnesses described Beauchamp as being starry-eyed, fixed on his father and acting like a zombie as he approached the dad with the shotgun.

During the trial, the Crown and defence agreed that Beauchamp was not criminally responsible because while he was capable of appreciating the nature and quality of his act, he was not capable of knowing it was wrong, by reason of the mental disorder.

“As a result of his delusions, he was of the view that his actions were morally correct,” said the judge. “He acted under the delusion that he needed to kill his father to protect himself and that there was nothing wrong in him doing so. This is apparent from his statements at the scene and from his statements to police after his arrest.”

The judge said Beauchamp will be detained and the matter referred to the B.C. Review Board, an independent tribunal which has jurisdiction to hold hearings into cases where an accused is found not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder.

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Metro Vancouver — Longtime United Nations gang twins David and Ryan Murphy, 42, admitted in B.C. Supreme Court Tuesday that they helped their criminal organization commit the murders of Jonathan Barber in Burnaby and Kevin LeClair in Langley.

Both twins were handed just two-year sentences, despite being part of the plot to kill the notorious Bacon brothers and their associates over several months in 2008 and 2009.

Associate Chief Justice Austin Cullen heard that the twins were nearby when Barzan Tilli-Choli blasted Barber with an AK-47 provided by David Murphy, while Ryan was at the scene of LeClair’s fatal shooting by Cory Vallee using a machine gun that David had been safeguarding.

They each pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly and unlawfully participating in a criminal organization — the UN gang — “for the purpose of enhancing the ability of a criminal organization to commit the indictable offence of conspiracy to commit murder.”

Lawyers for the Murphy twins and Crown prosecutor Gordon Matei made a joint submission for the two-year terms, noting there was no evidence against the brothers until they provided incriminating statements to the RCMP earlier this year.

Matei also provided Cullen with two sealed documents that he said were a key part of the recommendation for the light sentences.

Cullen said that normally the twins’ admitted crimes would warrant more serious charges and a tougher penalty.

“It is sufficient to note that although the two offenders played no direct role in the killing of the two victims, they clearly and knowingly played roles supporting the undertaking,” Cullen said. “Ordinarily one would expect a more serious offence and a harsher sentence to be pursued in cases such as this where wanton gang violence has resulted in two deaths.”

But Cullen imposed the two-year sentences, noting there are “exceptional circumstances in this case which have resulted in these proceedings.”

An undated handout photo of Jamie Bacon and Kevin LeClair, on the right, who was killed in Feb. 2009 by UN gang members.

Matei read an agreed statement of facts that provided new details about the nights Barber and LeClair were murdered.

It said the UN had been warring with rivals Jonathan, Jarrod and Jamie Bacon over drug turf since 2003.

“Members of the Bacon group began to plot to kill members of the UN gang, particularly then-leader Clay Roueche,” Matei said. “Members of the UN were also trying to kill the Bacons and their associates.”

The conflict “escalated dramatically” on May 8, 2008 when popular UN member Duane Meyer was gunned down in Abbotsford in a suspected hit by the Bacon side.

“Roueche requested that all UN gang members join together to find and kill the Bacons and or their associates. Both David and Ryan Murphy joined in the hunt on the evening of May 9, 2008,” Matei said.

“Together with Jesse Adkins, another UN gang member, David and Ryan Murphy went out looking for the Bacons in Adkins’ Tahoe. In the Tahoe were two loaded AK-47 machine guns which belonged to David Murphy.”

The trio met other UN members in Burnaby where they had spotted a Porsche and a Jeep Cherokee that they believed Bacon gang members were driving.

In fact, the Porsche had just been picked up by Barber, who had no gang involvement. He was simply installing a stereo for Bacon. His girlfriend was driving the Jeep.

The UN gangsters took off in pursuit. Adkins and David Murphy were in his Tahoe with Tilli-Choli in the back with the AK-47s.

UN member Troy Tran and Ryan Murphy were following in Tran’s car.

“Tilli-Choli then opened fire first into the passenger side of the Cherokee and then into the Porsche,” Matei said.

Barber was killed and his girlfriend seriously wounded.

On Feb. 6, 2009, UN gangster Cory Vallee and David Murphy “were hunting for the Bacons,” Matei said.

They met up with Ryan and an associate named Nico, before David left to pack drugs. The others spotted LeClair entering a Langley restaurant. Adkins — the driver from the Barber murder — showed up as they awaited their target. When they saw the Bacon pal again, Adkins and Vallee ran up to him and fired, Matei said.

Adkins carried a handgun that jammed. Vallee used a mini AR 15.

“The mini AR 15 used to kill LeClair was a firearm David Murphy had been storing for another UN gang member in a safe in Adkins’ residence. It was taken without David Murphy’s knowledge,” Matei said.

The Crown also read part of a victim impact statement from Barber’s father Michael.

“The grief and loss experienced since his shocking death, his violent murder, has had a profound effect on so many family members, close friends and work associates that it pierces the very soul of one’s being,” he said. “No parent should experience the death of a child. The loss through unexpected accident of illness is bad enough. The absolute unnecessary lost through a violent killing by others is unfathomable.”

As for the others mentioned in court Tuesday, Tilli-Choli earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kill the Bacons and was sentenced to 14 years. Vallee is awaiting trial for two counts of murder, while Tran has also been charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Adkins is believed to have been killed in Mexico. Roueche is serving a 30-year sentence in the U.S. for drug trafficking and money laundering.

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The B.C. Court of Appeal has upheld the conviction of a Surrey man who tried to kill his estranged wife by repeatedly striking her over the head with a metal stick.

In September 2012, Ramiz Vukaj was found guilty of the April 2010 attempted murder of the mother of three, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban imposed at trial.

Vukaj was also convicted of uttering threats, break and enter, dangerous driving and leaving the scene of an accident.

In 1997, Vukaj, 31, had arranged to marry his wife, who lived in Albania and was 12 years old at the time. The couple were married the following year and in 2000, she immigrated to Canada to join him.

He beat her on the day she arrived in Canada and continued to assault her on a regular basis thereafter, frequently in front of their children.

Court heard that in April 2009, Vukaj’s wife had fled from their home after a particularly severe assault and had moved into a transition home with the children.

She started divorce proceedings against him and lived in a number of transition homes before finding a basement suite, concealing the location of the suite from him.

Vukaj was charged with assault and threatening in connection with the April 2009 incident, offences to which he pleaded guilty in February 2010.

He was charged with uttering threats in relation to an incident that happened later in February 2010 in which he was alleged during a divorce court proceeding to have made a gesture of moving his hand in a slicing motion across his neck and threatening to kill her.

In April 2010, Vukaj located where his wife was staying and forced his way into the home before hitting her on the head three times with the metal stick.

She was left unconscious on the floor in a pool of blood and suffered skull fractures and severe cuts.

On appeal, Vukaj argued that the trial judge, Justice Susan Griffin, considered inadmissible evidence on the charge of uttering threats. He also claimed that there was insufficient evidence of intention to kill on the attempted murder count.

But in a ruling released Monday, a three-judge panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal dismissed those arguments and upheld the convictions.

In his reasons for judgment, Justice Harvey Groberman found that while there were varying witness accounts of the threat, they were not inconsistent.

Regarding the attempted murder conviction, Groberman said the viciousness of the assault, combined with the surrounding circumstances were more than enough to prove Vukaj’s intent to kill.

“The nature of the attack was an important factor,” said the judge. “The appellant had gone to considerable trouble to find the complainant; he did not come upon her by accident. He broke into her apartment wielding a weapon. His attack was completely unprovoked. It was targeted at her head, and was unrelenting until she was unconscious.”

Justices Richard Goepel and Lauri Ann Fenlon agreed with Groberman’s ruling. 

Vukaj was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his crimes.

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VANCOUVER — The civilian body that investigates police-involved injuries and deaths in British Columbia says it will not seek charges against a Vancouver officer involved in a fatal shooting.

A report from the Independent Investigations Office says the shooting happened on April 9, 2015, as police were trying to arrest a knife-wielding man suspected of stabbing several people.

During the arrest, the 26-year-old Edmonton man was shot and died at the scene in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

The chief civilian director for the police watchdog has ruled the matter should not be referred to the Crown because an offence was not committed.

However, the director is forwarding a complaint to the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner over the time it took two of the officers involved in the case to write duty-to-account reports describing the shooting.

The Independent Investigations Office says the case appears to be an example of a pattern where Vancouver officers, members of the RCMP and police in two other municipal agencies haven’t provided the necessary reports or notes outlining their part in a critical incident.

It says the reports can form vital evidence during an investigation and cites a Supreme Court of Canada decision that “police officers do have a duty to prepare accurate, detailed and comprehensive notes as soon as practicable.”

The Office of the Police Complaints Commission has the power to hear issues regarding conduct of municipal officers and can impose penalties ranging from reprimands to suspensions or dismissal.

Shooting at Gore and Hastings in Vancouver, B.C., on April 9, 2015.

A convicted murderer who escaped from prison last spring and went on a robbery spree has been sentenced to 11 additional years in prison.

Shawn William Merrick, 44, pleaded guilty in October to six counts of robbery and one count of escaping from lawful custody. He was sentenced this week in provincial court in Surrey.

In March 2009, Merrick admitted to the second-degree murder of Surrey’s Shelley Devoe, whose body was found on Burke Mountain in Coquitlam in September 2006. Merrick shot her because he suspected her of stealing $800 and some cocaine. He was sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 10 years.

At the time of his sentencing, he was already serving a six-year prison sentence for committing 10 robberies.

In March 2015, Merrick escaped from the minimum-security unit at Mission Institution. He was on the lam for six weeks before being arrested in Langley, where he was found hiding on the roof of a house.

During his time away from prison, Merrick committed six bank robberies — two in Surrey and four in Langley.

According to court records, Merrick was sentenced to six years each for four of the robberies, and those sentences will run concurrent to each other. He was also sentenced to two years each for two Langley robberies, which run consecutive to each other and the six-year sentence. That’s a total of 10 years in prison for the robberies. He was also sentenced to one year, consecutive, for escaping from prison.

His sentence will run concurrent to his life sentence.

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Two men with links to the United Nations gang will be released from prison, but with special conditions imposed by the Parole Board of Canada.

Ion Kroitoru, also known as Johnny K-9, has been ordered to live in a halfway house and not to have any contact with gangsters or criminals.

The colourful former wrestler, biker and bit actor pleaded guilty in 2013 to conspiracy to murder the Bacon brothers and their Red Scorpion associates, and was was sentenced to 13 years minus time spent in pretrial custody. He was up for statutory release in August.

The Parole Board said in an Aug. 16 decision that Correctional Service of Canada staff requested the special conditions for Kroitoru, who was a close associate of UN gang founder Clay Roueche.

The board said Kroitoru, 53, needed to be in a “community correctional centre” or “community residential facility” approved by the Correctional Service.

“The board is satisfied that, in the absence of a residency condition, you will present an undue risk to society,” the written decision says.

The written decision details Kroitoru’s lengthy criminal history even before he was charged in the B.C. murder conspiracy.  

United Nations gang associate Ion Kroitoru

“Your file clearly documents the history of assault, extortion and drugs. File information notes that you have worked as an enforcer and debt collector for an organized crime family and that you were the subject of a criminal investigation in a double homicide. Charges were withdrawn in that case. You were also the president of a notorious motorcycle gang,” the ruling says.

“Your file reveals a man that engaged in a criminal lifestyle for over 20 years, associating with like-minded individuals that possessed entrenched criminal attitudes and pose a very real risk to public safety.”

Kroitoru has completed programs to aid his reintegration, the board said.

“You indicate you are a changed man and you ask for a chance to prove it.”

And convicted killer Roy Kenshin Lee, also a friend of Roueche, has been granted day parole after almost 28 years in prison.

But Lee, 51, will also be required to live in a halfway house and follow other special conditions including “not to associate with any person you know or have reason to believe is involved in criminal activity.” 

Lee was convicted of the1987 murder of a criminal associate in Niagara Falls, Ont.

Earlier this year, the Parole Board granted Lee permission to take a two-month trauma program at a Metro Vancouver halfway house.

But his most recent parole documents indicate he was later denied access to the program after The Vancouver Sun reported details of his March hearing – including that Lee’s mother refers to Roueche as her “godson.”

In the board’s most recent ruling, it said Lee’s “risk is not undue on day parole” and that he had demonstrated good behavior in prison in recent years and had taken counseling programs.

But board members also said they were “very concerned about the extreme gravity of the murder and your criminal history including your involvement with sophisticated criminals and organized crime.”

“The Board further notes that in the most recent psychological risk assessment, you are assessed high risk for violent and general reoffending.”

While on day parole, Lee must also abstain from drugs and alcohol, continue counseling and provide details of his finances to his parole officer.

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A Chilliwack man has been charged with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of his associate earlier this year.

Daniel Joseph Fabas, 34, was already facing firearms charges after Dave Williams was found dead in a residence on Princess Avenue on April 18.

But Fabas was also identified by the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team as a suspect in the murder, Cpl. Meghan Foster said Thursday.

“In the four months that followed, investigators pursued leads and followed up on the tips and information received from the public to further the investigation. On Aug. 16, 2016 Crown Counsel approved a second-degree murder charge against Mr. Fabas,” Foster said.

She said tips from the public helped the investigation move forward. And she credited other agencies for their assistance in the murder case.

“This investigation highlights the importance of evidence retrieval and the commitment from IHIT to stay on course even long after a suspect has been arrested,” she said.

Fabas has a criminal history in the Fraser Valley.

He was convicted of two breaches of court-ordered conditions in May 2009 and got 10 days in jail. In June that year, he was convicted of possession of stolen property and resisting a police officer. He got a month-long sentence. Then in September, 2009, he was convicted of escape from lawful custody and break and enter and got another 10-day sentence.

He will appear in court on Sept. 6 on both the murder charge and the firearms counts.

Williams, 33, was also known to police.

He had convictions for assault and breaching court-ordered conditions.

At the time of his murder, he was facing charges of uttering threats, using a firearm, unauthorized possession of a firearm related, possession of stolen property and break and enter. A warrant was issued for his arrest just four days before his murder.

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The Crown is calling for two years in jail for Justin Haevischer, who helped his older brother, Surrey Six killer Cody Haevischer, dispose of evidence of the October 2007 gangland slayings.

In May, Justin Haevischer, 30, who was initially charged with accessory after the fact to murder, quietly pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of obstruction of justice.

After the murders, Cody Haevischer and his co-accused, Matthew Johnston, returned to Haevischer’s apartment, where they met Haevischer’s girlfriend and Justin.

Cody Haevischer put his clothes in a laundry bag along with some cellphones he had boiled in hot water and he and his brother used a towel to wipe down the bag before putting the towel into the bag, according to facts read into court at the sentencing hearing Thursday.

The killer wrote the words “People Died” on a whiteboard and showed it to his brother and instructed his girlfriend, who can only be identified by the initials K.M. due to a publication ban, to follow Justin’s directions.

Justin Haevischer took the bag and, along with K.M., left the apartment. Justin gave K.M. directions on where to go and they drove to a gas station to buy a can of gas.

The first location they went to burn the bag, they were approached by some people, prompting them to leave the scene. They left the can of gas behind and had to drive to a second gas station and bought another can of gas before driving to a second location, off King George Highway, where Justin burned the bag and its contents.

In his sentencing submissions, Crown counsel Peter Hogg said that while the Crown can’t prove, and he wasn’t suggesting, that the accused knew about the Surrey Six murders, he was aware from his brother that people had died.

“It would have been clear in his mind that something very awful must have occurred,” Hogg told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Bruce.

Hogg said that there was no evidence of any dismay or concern expressed by the younger brother and while it was a fast-moving event, Haevischer nevertheless adopted a methodical approach to the destruction of the evidence.

“There was no question of what he was being asked to do. There is a callousness, or an element of callousness, to the way this was carried out.”

The Balmoral Towers, location of the Surrey Six killings.

Hogg said that Haevischer’s crime struck at the heart of the justice system, in addition to the impact it had on the victim’s family.

The prosecutor, noting that Haevischer had already spent five months in pre-sentence custody before being granted bail and was entitled to enhanced credit for that jail time, told the judge that the accused should spend another two years behind bars.

Eileen Mohan, whose son Christopher was one of the six murder victims, read out a victim impact statement in which she told Haevischer that while he wasn’t part of the plan to kill and he wasn’t present at the slayings, she believed he was smiling when he left to destroy the evidence.

“It looked to me like you didn’t care at all about what had happened, other than to make sure that your brother and his friends weren’t caught. What I would like to know is this: would you have felt as carefree if it had been a member of your family that had been murdered for no reason?”

Robert Claus, a lawyer for Haevischer, argued that his client had already spent time in jail and that a more appropriate sentence would be a conditional sentence of two years less a day.

“We have nothing to say about the horrific nature of the offence that led to Mr. Haevischer’s involvement here. It is horrific, something that Mr. Haevischer on this date, he had no knowledge of and was not part of the offence of murder.”

Claus said that Haevischer, a member of the Red Scorpions gang, was a low-level member of the organization, had substance abuse problems throughout his life and was only 21 years old at the time. He said his client had turned his life around in a drug rehabilitation centre.

The judge is expected to impose sentence Sept. 7.

In October 2014, Cody Haevischer and Johnston were each convicted of six counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. They received the mandatory life sentence with no parole eligibility for 25 years.

kfraser@postmedia.com

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Police in Surrey are trying to nab a thief who makes his getaway on rollerblades.

Surrey RCMP think the same suspect is responsible for the robbery of a gas station and a bakery, threatening employees with a knife in both cases before taking off on inline skates.

The most recent theft occurred Aug. 21 around 9 p.m. at a gas station in the 15700-block Fraser Highway.

“The suspect threatened the female attendant with a large knife before robbing the store and fleeing the scene northbound on 157th Street,” said RCMP spokesman Cpl. Scotty Schumann in a release Thursday.

He is described as white, 25 to 30 years old, about 5-foot-8 with a medium build. He was wearing a black hoodie with white markings, blue jeans, a beige ball cap, sunglasses and rollerblades.

Investigators think that suspect committed a robbery in the same area a day earlier.

On Aug. 20 just before 5 p.m., police were called to a theft at a bakery in the 15500-block Fraser Highway. Again, the suspect threatened staff with a knife and the physical description was similar. In this case he was wearing a white T-shirt with green on it, grey shorts, sunglasses and rollerblades.

Anyone with information is asked to call Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477 or solvecrime.ca.

A B.C. man being sought by the United States on charges of laundering millions of dollars has been ordered released on $500,000 bail until his extradition hearing.

Glenn Sheck faces charges that between June 2007 and April 2012, he was involved in coordinating several dozen money transfers alleged to be the proceeds of drug trafficking activity. 

He also boasted to an undercover police officer about his importance in the criminal world in B.C., talked about funding terrorism and about corrupting officials, court was told.

The money-laundering offences are alleged to have occurred while he was out on bail facing a firearms possession charge on which he was eventually convicted and sentenced to 18 months in jail.

When his application to appeal his firearms conviction was rejected by the Supreme Court of Canada in May, he surrendered to authorities to serve the jail sentence. While in custody the extradition warrant was served on him.

He then appealed the length of the sentence and was to be released until that appeal is heard.

Glenn Sheck was ordered released on $500,000 bail. The federal government is seeking his extradition to the United States, where he faces money-laundering charges.

At his bail hearing, a Canadian government lawyer, representing the United States, argued that Sheck was a flight risk and at risk of re-offending and that it would shock Canadians to release him on bail until his extradition hearing.

His lawyer said Sheck had been out on bail both before and after his firearms conviction, and had lived up to his bail conditions for more than four years. The defence lawyer argued there was no evidence he was currently involved in crimes.

In reaching his decision Friday, Associate Chief Justice Austin Cullen of the B.C. Supreme Court said the key issue was the allegation Sheck had offended while on bail for the firearms case.

He said that the fact that Sheck had been granted bail twice by the B.C. Court of Appeal during appeals for his conviction and sentence on the drug case and had complied with bail conditions for four years worked in his favour.

Cullen said he would order Sheck released on tough conditions and a substantial bail.

The federal lawyer sought a bail of $1 million while Sheck’s lawyer argued for $200,000. The judge settled for bail of $500,000.

Cullen also ordered that he obey a curfew between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., except for medical emergencies or medical appointments, or written permission of his bail supervisor to leave the home in Langley where he will be staying.

Sheck was ordered to surrender his passport and remain in B.C. except with permission from his bail supervisor. The texting function on his cellphone must be disabled and he is under instruction not to place any international calls except to his lawyer in the United States. He is to provide his bail supervisor with his cellphone number and records.

kfraser@postmedia.com

twitter.com/keithrfraser

Homicide detectives have been called in after one person was killed and another sent to hospital in critical condition following a targeted shooting in Chilliwack Friday night.

Integrated Homicide Investigation Team spokeswoman Cpl. Meghan Foster says shortly before 8 p.m., the Chilliwack RCMP received a report of shots fired in the 48000-block of Chilliwack Central Road. 

When officers arrived, they found two victims who had suffered gunshot wounds.  One of the victims died, and the second victim was transported to hospital by the B.C. Ambulance Service with life threatening injuries.

IHIT has taken over the investigation, and is working with the Chilliwack RCMP to determine what happened. Foster says the area surrounding the crime scene will be cordoned off for a significant amount of time. 

Foster says investigators believe the shooting was targeted. The victims have not yet been identified, as family is yet to be notified. 

IHIT is asking anyone with information about the shooting to contact the IHIT tip line at 1-877-551-4448 (IHIT), or Crime Stoppers.

 There are reports a car chase may have been involved but that has yet to be confirmed by police.

IHIT is investigating after a shooting in the 48000 block of Chilliwack Central Rd near Banford Rd around 8 p.m. on Friday.

Vancouver police say convicted rapist Larry Takahashi has not been seen in an east Vancouver neighbourhood.

Someone has posted leaflets claiming to have seen the 63-year-old in the neighbourhood but Acting Sgt. Brian Montague says the sightings are false.

Takahashi, dubbed the balaclava rapist, is staying at a halfway house in an unknown location in Vancouver but Montague says he has not yet left that facility.

In 1984, Takahashi was sentenced to three life terms after admitting to raping at least 30 women in Edmonton in the 1970s and 1980s.

He was recently granted parole, even though a Parole Board report found he poses a moderate to high risk to reoffend and is a danger to teen girls and women.

Privacy laws prevent officials from naming the halfway house where Takahashi is staying.

Montague says police understand concerns about safety, and residents should be aware of his presence so they can protect themselves, but he says the alleged sightings, so far, are what he calls “phantom.”

“We want the public to be vigilant. But we are concerned that someone who may resemble Mr. Takahashi may wind up in a situation that we don’t want them in, obviously. We don’t want people taking matters into their own hands,” says Montague.

Police assure the public that they are keeping close tabs on Takahashi and urge residents to call 911 if they see him violating any of his conditions, including a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.

Burnaby RCMP is investigating three apparent sexual assaults against women between Sept. 1 and 3.

Police said that on Sept. 1, they received two reports of women being followed as they walked along Mary Avenue and 16th Street.

The women said the unknown male approached them from behind and pulled their pants down to the ground. When the women turned around, he fled the area on foot.

The incidents happened within 20 minutes of each other and the suspect’s description was similar in both cases: medium-skinned; late teens to early ’20s; 1.7 metres (five feet, seven inches) to 1.8 metres (five feet, 10 inches) tall; thin build, prominent dark eyebrows; wearing a black baseball hat, black hoody and dark jeans.

On Sept. 3 at 7:50 a.m., a woman reported that she’d been grabbed by a male in the 7400-block of Kingsway Avenue. The woman was walking down an alley when he approached her from behind and grabbed her buttocks. When she turned around the man ran away.

The suspect was described as light-skinned; thin build; 1.7 metres (five feet, seven inches) to 1.8 metres (five feet, 10 inches) tall; wearing a red jacket and blue jeans.

RCMP, which believes the three incidents are related, said extensive patrols have been undertaken. None of the three women were injured.

Burnaby RCMP is cautioning people to be vigilant when walking alone in the area and to walk in pairs or groups if possible.

Anyone with information is asked to call RCMP at (604) 294-7922 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

bmorton@postmedia.com

A man who has been described as “the directing mind” behind a Mission double murder has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit murder.

Thomas Robert Bruce Holden, 46, entered the plea in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster on Tuesday, in front of his family and the families of his victims — 37-year-old Lisa Dudley and 33-year-old Guthrie McKay. Holden was initially charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

“You’re a coward, Tom Holden!” Dudley’s mother, Rosemarie Surakka, called out to Holden as he waited in the prisoner’s box to enter his plea.

On the night of Sept. 18, 2008, Jack Douglas Woodruff, Bruce Ian Main and Justin Andrew MacKinnon went to the home Dudley and McKay shared in the 31000-block Greenwood Drive in Mission. Woodruff was designated as the shooter, Main drove to and from the home and MacKinnon was the lookout.

Woodruff went to the back of the home, stood on the deck and fired six shots into the living room where Dudley and McKay were watching television. Dudley was shot in the head and neck and McKay in the head, neck and face.

The men fled and a neighbour called 911 to report the gunshots.

An RCMP officer was sent to the area and spent 13 minutes at the home without getting out of his car or speaking to the person who called 911. In 2011, the officer was given a written reprimand and docked one day of pay.

Undated photo of Guthrie McKay (left) and Lisa Dudley, who died after being shot in an incident on Sept. 18, 2008. McKay died instantly and Dudley was found tied to a chair four days later but died in hospital.

A neighbour discovered the couple four days after the shootings. McKay was dead and Dudley was paralyzed. She died on the way to the hospital.

Dudley was the target of the contract killing. According to evidence from previous sentencing hearings, the hit was ordered because of a long-standing dispute between Dudley and a former partner in a marijuana business. The prosecutor at MacKinnon’s sentencing described Holden as “the directing mind.”

MacKinnon was sentenced in November 2013 to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of manslaughter. His sentence was reduced to two years after he was given credit for time served. Main pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter and was sentenced in July 2013 to eight years in prison, minus one year of credit for time served. Woodruff pleaded guilty in March 2012 to two counts of first-degree murder. He is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Holden’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 9, 2017.

Dudley’s sister, Cindy Kienleitner said her family was not surprised to hear about the plea, but “really disappointed.” She said they were disgusted by the fact that Holden was able to remain on bail and leave court after pleading guilty to planning two murders.

“I think that’s one of the biggest kicks in the teeth, that he was able to walk out of here with his family,” she said. “I think he should have been taken away immediately.”

Pat McKay, Guthrie McKay’s father, felt the same way. However, he said, it is nice to see the court cases wrapping up and know that someone was held responsible for killing his son and Dudley.

“We had no expectations of anything right from the beginning, so any success that IHIT (Integrated Homicide Investigation Team) achieved along the way was a huge elation for us,” said Guthrie’s mother, Dorothy McKay.

Mark Surakka, Dudley’s stepfather, said now that the court process has almost concluded, he hopes the B.C. Coroners Service will finally schedule a long-promised coroner’s inquest into the case.

“We can hopefully now get that information we’ve been missing,” he said.

Added Rosemarie: “I think we have a right to know. I want to know.”

jensaltman@postmedia.com

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