I remember covering Robbie Soomel’s arrest back in 2000 for the slaying of his childhood friend Gurp Sohi. He has now been in jail for 18 years and wants to get out before reaching the 25-year mark where those convicted of first-degree murder can finally apply for parole.

Here’s my story:

When convicted killer Robbie Soomel lost his brother in a 2009 gangland hit, it had a profound impact on his life inside a federal prison, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Brent Anderson told a B.C. Supreme Court judge that the fatal shooting of Raj Soomel in a case of mistaken identity “was the catalyst for Mr. Soomel to change his ways.”

“It has perhaps provided him with a unique perspective on the harm he caused through his offending because he now is himself a victim of a family member having been murdered,” Anderson told Justice George Macintosh.

Anderson asked Macintosh to send Robbie Soomel’s case to a faint-hope hearing, where a jury would decide if he should get parole before serving 25 years of his life sentence.

Soomel was convicted of the first-degree murder of friend-turned-drug trade rival Gurpreet Sohi, who was shot to death in a Delta basement suite in September 2000. And Soomel pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder for assisting with the contracted killing of Jason Herle in Abbotsford in 1997. Soomel was just 18 at the time.

At his murder trial, he was also identified as a suspect in the still-unsolved 1998 assassination of journalist Tara Singh Hayer, who had agreed to testify for the Crown in the Air India terrorism case.

Anderson said that despite Soomel’s violent history and the disciplinary problems that plagued his early years of incarceration, he has been a model prisoner since 2010, taking courses, qualifying for escorted trips into the community and being “very active” in William Head Institution’s annual theatre production.

“He has really demonstrated that change where he is now a fundamentally different person than where he was when he was 18 and 20 years old,” Anderson said.

He argued that the purpose of a faint-hope hearing is “to determine what has been the change in the applicant’s circumstance that might justify imposing a lesser penalty.”

Soomel, now 39, meets the criteria for a hearing, Anderson said.

MacIntosh noted that his role in deciding whether to send Soomel’s case forward “is to guess what that jury is going to do.” A jury in a faint-hope case must rule unanimously to reduce a killer’s parole ineligibility period.

Crown Dan Mulligan said Soomel does not meet the criteria because of the nature of his offences, as well as his conduct inside federal prisons where he amassed dozens of institutional charges and convictions.

“It says something about Mr. Soomel’s character that he was involved in two homicides, both of which were fairly intricately planned,” Mulligan said.

“In the Crown’s submission, there are very few indications in the Corrections documents that Mr. Soomel has expressed heartfelt or genuine remorse for the murders.”

He said Soomel tends to minimize his role in his violent crimes, suggesting he was influenced by others in the gang and drug world in which he was immersed as a youth.

In fact, Soomel ran his own drug business and had five or six employees at the time he targeted Sohi because he suspected his childhood friend of a drug rip-off and an earlier shooting.

“Mr. Soomel continues to minimize his own culpability. The fact is he was the ringleader who orchestrated the murder of Mr. Sohi and used his influence over others to conscript them into the conspiracy,” Mulligan said.

Soomel watched Wednesday’s proceedings via video-monitor, looking very different from the baby-faced accused at his trial 15 years ago.

Robbie Soomel in high school yearbook photo

Mulligan also explained how Soomel’s brother was shot near a Vancouver halfway house where he had been living after pleading guilty to attempted murder of a man who testified against his younger brother.

RCMP investigators probing the Hayer murder targeted Raj Soomel in an undercover “Mr. Big” sting where the officers posed as member of a criminal organization to try to get the elder Soomel to provide information about Hayer’s murder. He didn’t. But he did try to hire one of the cops to murder a witness who testified against Robbie Soomel at his trial.

Two men linked to the United Nations gang were convicted in 2016 of murdering Raj Soomel after mistaking him for Independent Soldiers gangster Randy Naicker, who was living at the same halfway house. Naicker was shot to death in 2012.

Robbie Soomel’s hearing is expected to end Thursday, with Macintosh reserving his decision.

kbolan@postmedia.com

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Days after charges were stayed in the province’s largest-ever money laundering case, a lawyer for the former accused was in B.C. Supreme Court trying to get millions of dollars seized by police returned to the pair.

The hearing was held Nov. 27 before Justice Heather Holmes. Postmedia did not attend the proceeding, but listened to a recording of the 42-minute session at the Vancouver Law Courts on Friday.

Lawyer Matthew Nathanson filed an application on Nov. 26 for the return of more than $2 million seized during an RCMP investigation, dubbed E-Pirate. The cash was found in the home of Caixuan Qin and Jain Jun Zhu, as well as at the Richmond offices of Silver International Investments, of which Qin is director.

Until Nov. 22, Qin, Zhu and Silver International had been charged with laundering the proceeds of crime, possession of property obtained by crime, and failing to ascertain the identity of a client.

Police alleged the company had laundered hundreds of millions of dollars and was linked to drug money.

No details of why the charges were stayed were disclosed at Tuesday’s hearing.

Nathanson told Holmes that his clients’ Charter rights were violated by police when they conducted the searches and that their money, as well as the contents of two safety deposit boxes, should be returned immediately.

Federal prosecutor Gerry Sair argued that normally items seized during investigations are returned within 30 days after a case has concluded under a provision of the criminal code.

He also said he wasn’t in a position to respond to Nathanson’s Charter application because he only received notice of it the previous day.

Sair said that the 30-day period is in effect because it takes time to process the money seized and arrange for it to be returned.

“There are property management orders in place and it takes a little bit of time to go through the motion of actually releasing it and returning the funds to the applicants or their accounts,” he said.

Sair also said the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office is reviewing its file in the E-Pirate case.

“In my view, that is irrelevant to this matter. But it’s possible within a 30-day period of time, they may make an application to somehow restrain the money,” Sair said.

Earlier this year, almost $1 million was forfeited to the director of civil forfeiture that was seized in August 2015 from two men who police earlier saw entering Silver International’s office with suitcases. Silver said in court filings that it had no interest in that cash.

Sair also said holding onto property for “a few days” after charges are stayed would not constitute a breach of someone’s Charter rights.

Nathanson said it would be unfair to his clients if their money was not immediately returned and then became the subject of a civil forfeiture application, tying it up even longer.

“The position of the applicants is as of right now, further retention is unlawful,” he told Holmes.

Sair noted that some of the items seized were illegal and should not be returned.

“They include rifle cartridges, a credit card skimmer … and white powder,” he said.

Holmes agreed to issue an order for the return of the cash and safety deposit box items within the 30-day limit, but also agreed to hear Nathanson’s Charter application for an even faster return of the items when the case returns to court on Dec. 12.

Holmes also said that if a civil forfeiture challenge is brought, Nathanson could still argue his position “that the original seizure was unlawful.”

Nathanson said that while he believes the initial seizure was illegal, “my position at this moment is regardless of that issue, the continued detention now is unlawful.”

Reached by phone Thursday, Nathanson declined to comment on the current application before the courts, or the stay.

The Public Prosecution Service of Canada would only confirm that the charges were stayed, but would not say why.

B.C. Attorney General David Eby expressed concern about the stay and said he would ask for more information from the RCMP and the federal Crown about what went wrong with the years-long investigation.

Postmedia earlier obtained RCMP and B.C. government documents that alleged organized criminals used Silver as an illegal bank to wash drug money through Metro Vancouver casinos.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

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My former colleague Sam Cooper has written a lot about the E-Pirate money laundering investigation. He mentioned it again in a series he did for Global TV, where he is now working. So I was surprised when I checked the status of the accused in the case and learned last week that all charges had been stayed – something I passed to another colleague who wrote about it.

Then I learned the former accused were in B.C. Supreme Court last week trying to get their money seized in the investigation returned.

Here’s that story:

Days after charges were stayed in the province’s largest-ever money laundering case, a lawyer for the former accused was in B.C. Supreme Court trying to get millions of dollars seized by police returned to the pair.

The hearing was held Nov. 27 before Justice Heather Holmes. Postmedia did not attend the proceeding, but listened to a recording of the 42-minute session at the Vancouver Law Courts on Friday.

Lawyer Matthew Nathanson filed an application on Nov. 26 for the return of more than $2 million seized during an RCMP investigation, dubbed E-Pirate. The cash was found in the home of Caixuan Qin and Jain Jun Zhu, as well as at the Richmond offices of Silver International Investments, of which Qin is director.

Until Nov. 22, Qin, Zhu and Silver International had been charged with laundering the proceeds of crime, possession of property obtained by crime, and failing to ascertain the identity of a client.

Police alleged the company had laundered hundreds of millions of dollars and was linked to drug money.

No details of why the charges were stayed were disclosed at Tuesday’s hearing.

Nathanson told Holmes that his clients’ Charter rights were violated by police when they conducted the searches and that their money, as well as the contents of two safety deposit boxes, should be returned immediately.

Federal prosecutor Gerry Sair argued that normally items seized during investigations are returned within 30 days after a case has concluded under a provision of the criminal code.

He also said he wasn’t in a position to respond to Nathanson’s Charter application because he only received notice of it the previous day.

Sair said that the 30-day period is in effect because it takes time to process the money seized and arrange for it to be returned.

“There are property management orders in place and it takes a little bit of time to go through the motion of actually releasing it and returning the funds to the applicants or their accounts,” he said.

Sair also said the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office is reviewing its file in the E-Pirate case.

“In my view, that is irrelevant to this matter. But it’s possible within a 30-day period of time, they may make an application to somehow restrain the money,” Sair said.

Earlier this year, almost $1 million was forfeited to the director of civil forfeiture that was seized in August 2015 from two men who police earlier saw entering Silver International’s office with suitcases. Silver said in court filings that it had no interest in that cash.

Sair also said holding onto property for “a few days” after charges are stayed would not constitute a breach of someone’s Charter rights.

Nathanson said it would be unfair to his clients if their money was not immediately returned and then became the subject of a civil forfeiture application, tying it up even longer.

“The position of the applicants is as of right now, further retention is unlawful,” he told Holmes.

Sair noted that some of the items seized were illegal and should not be returned.

“They include rifle cartridges, a credit card skimmer … and white powder,” he said.

Holmes agreed to issue an order for the return of the cash and safety deposit box items within the 30-day limit, but also agreed to hear Nathanson’s Charter application for an even faster return of the items when the case returns to court on Dec. 12.

Holmes also said that if a civil forfeiture challenge is brought, Nathanson could still argue his position “that the original seizure was unlawful.”

Nathanson said that while he believes the initial seizure was illegal, “my position at this moment is regardless of that issue, the continued detention now is unlawful.”

Reached by phone Thursday, Nathanson declined to comment on the current application before the courts, or the stay.

The Public Prosecution Service of Canada would only confirm that the charges were stayed, but would not say why.

B.C. Attorney General David Eby expressed concern about the stay and said he would ask for more information from the RCMP and the federal Crown about what went wrong with the years-long investigation.

Postmedia earlier obtained RCMP and B.C. government documents that alleged organized criminals used Silver as an illegal bank to wash drug money through Metro Vancouver casinos.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

The retired head of the Ontario Provincial Police Biker Enforcement Unit testified in B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday that Hells Angels paraphernalia and “knick knacks” on display at clubhouses are there to intimidate those who visit.

Len Isnor, who retired last year, prepared a report on the biker gang for the B.C. Director of Civil Forfeiture to be used in his efforts to get clubhouses in Nanaimo, East Vancouver and Kelowna forfeited to the provincial government as alleged instruments of criminal activity.

But first, the director must get Justice Barry Davies to determine whether Isnor will be qualified as an expert at the long-running civil forfeiture trial.

A lawyer for the Hells Angels challenged Isnor in cross-examination Tuesday about parts of his report.

“You refer to memorabilia and knick knacks are for intimidation. Just looking at the pictures, which knick knacks are for intimidation in those photos?” lawyer Joe Arvay asked Isnor.

Isnor pointed to a photo and said, “A Hells Angel with the death head on his head on top of a dragon.”

“So someone going into the clubhouse and seeing that is going to be intimidated, is that your point?” Arvay asked.

Isnor replied: “Yes, sir.”

Isnor also said in the report that he believed some children’s books and toys had been placed on an end table inside the Kelowna clubhouse before his court-ordered inspection in order to make it seem family friendly.

“This is the first time I have ever seen or heard of an area set up in a clubhouse for children. In my opinion, this was set up because of my inspection of the clubhouse,” Isnor’s report said.

Arvay asked Isnor if it was also possible that the toys were inside the clubhouse because “one or more of the members of the Kelowna clubhouse have children and that they may go to the clubhouse at times.”

Isnor testified that in 23 years of investigating the Hells Angels and other outlaw motorcycle gangs, he had never seen children in a clubhouse.

Arvay asked Isnor if he knew that Kelowna Hells Angels president Damiano Dipopolo “has eight children, and he might want to have some toys in the clubhouse when he is there with his children?”

Isnor pointed out that Dipopolo lives in Metro Vancouver.

Kelowna Hells Angels president Damiano Dipopolo (centre) arrives at the Nanaimo Hells Angels’ clubhouse.

“This clubhouse is in Kelowna, so I doubt that Mr. Dipopolo is bringing his children to this clubhouse. And the area in which these toys are set up is with the adult type entertainment in there. It just doesn’t mix,” Isnor said. “It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.”

Arvay suggested that if the Kelowna clubhouse had a children’s play area, that would “distinguish” it from other Hells Angels clubhouses.

“Would you be prepared to concede that if in fact children were allowed into the Kelowna clubhouse and that’s the reason why there are some children’s books and toys, then that would demonstrate to you that you can’t paint with the same broad brush all the clubhouses in the world, right?” he asked.

Isnor said he would “hate to hear” of children being in a clubhouse “knowing how dangerous they are.”

Undated handout photo of the Hells Angels clubhouse in Kelowna.

His report also described bullet-proof windows at the East End clubhouse in Vancouver, and said the Kelowna clubhouse had similar-looking windows. He wrote that he thought the Kelowna bikers had emptied out most of the alcohol from the fridge prior to his inspection.

The report also said that most Hells Angels “are no longer passionate about motorcycles, but rather they hide behind the guise that they are an organization of motorcycle clubs.

“Though it is mandatory for all HA members to have a motorcycle, the passion for the motorcycle is secondary to the reputation and criminality of the organization,” Isnor wrote.

The trial continues.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

The Hells Angels civil forfeiture case is continuing with long-time Ontario biker cop Len Isnor on the stand. He retired last year but is testifying as a witness for the director of civil forfeiture. His evidence is currently part of a voir dire – or a trial within trial – after which Justice Barry Davies will decide whether to qualify him as an expert on the Hells Angels. He has been qualified as an expert in B.C. before in cases like in the Dane Philips case, the Fred Widdifield trial, and the Greeks case.

Here’s my story:

The retired head of the Ontario Provincial Police Biker Enforcement Unit testified in B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday that Hells Angels paraphernalia and “knick knacks” on display at clubhouses are there to intimidate those who visit.

Len Isnor, who retired last year, prepared a report on the biker gang for the B.C. Director of Civil Forfeiture to be used in his efforts to get clubhouses in Nanaimo, East Vancouver and Kelowna forfeited to the provincial government as alleged instruments of criminal activity.

But first, the director must get Justice Barry Davies to determine whether Isnor will be qualified as an expert at the long-running civil forfeiture trial.

A lawyer for the Hells Angels challenged Isnor in cross-examination Tuesday about parts of his report.

“You refer to memorabilia and knick knacks are for intimidation. Just looking at the pictures, which knick knacks are for intimidation in those photos?” lawyer Joe Arvay asked Isnor.

Isnor pointed to a photo and said, “A Hells Angel with the death head on his head on top of a dragon.”

“So someone going into the clubhouse and seeing that is going to be intimidated, is that your point?” Arvay asked.

Isnor replied: “Yes, sir.”

Isnor also said in the report that he believed some children’s books and toys had been placed on an end table inside the Kelowna clubhouse before his court-ordered inspection in order to make it seem family friendly.

“This is the first time I have ever seen or heard of an area set up in a clubhouse for children. In my opinion, this was set up because of my inspection of the clubhouse,” Isnor’s report said.

Arvay asked Isnor if it was also possible that the toys were inside the clubhouse because “one or more of the members of the Kelowna clubhouse have children and that they may go to the clubhouse at times.”

Isnor testified that in 23 years of investigating the Hells Angels and other outlaw motorcycle gangs, he had never seen children in a clubhouse.

Arvay asked Isnor if he knew that Kelowna Hells Angels president Damiano Dipopolo “has eight children, and he might want to have some toys in the clubhouse when he is there with his children?”

Isnor pointed out that Dipopolo lives in Metro Vancouver.

“This clubhouse is in Kelowna, so I doubt that Mr. Dipopolo is bringing his children to this clubhouse. And the area in which these toys are set up is with the adult type entertainment in there. It just doesn’t mix,” Isnor said. “It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.”

Arvay suggested that if the Kelowna clubhouse had a children’s play area, that would “distinguish” it from other Hells Angels clubhouses.

“Would you be prepared to concede that if in fact children were allowed into the Kelowna clubhouse and that’s the reason why there are some children’s books and toys, then that would demonstrate to you that you can’t paint with the same broad brush all the clubhouses in the world, right?” he asked.

Isnor said he would “hate to hear” of children being in a clubhouse “knowing how dangerous they are.”

The Kelowna Hells Angels’ clubhouse.

His report also described bullet-proof windows at the East End clubhouse in Vancouver, and said the Kelowna clubhouse had similar-looking windows. He wrote that he thought the Kelowna bikers had emptied out most of the alcohol from the fridge prior to his inspection.

The report also said that most Hells Angels “are no longer passionate about motorcycles, but rather they hide behind the guise that they are an organization of motorcycle clubs.

“Though it is mandatory for all HA members to have a motorcycle, the passion for the motorcycle is secondary to the reputation and criminality of the organization,” Isnor wrote.

The trial continues.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

The vice-president of the union that represents B.C. prison guards says his members followed policy the day an inmate died in the back of a corrections van.

Dean Purdy of the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union said in a memo to his members that a government review has already determined that “no discipline is required” in the death of Alex Joseph.

Joseph, 36, died of a suspected drug overdose Oct. 4 as he and other inmates were being driven from Prince George to Maple Ridge in the back of a B.C. Corrections vehicle.

Others in the van told Postmedia that they tried for more than an hour to get the correctional officers to stop and help Joseph by shouting and pounding on the walls. The van finally pulled over north of 100 Mile House, but by then Joseph was dead.

Postmedia reached out to Purdy for comment at the time of the original stories last month, but he didn’t respond.

He said in his memo, obtained by Postmedia, that he understands that his members are frustrated “at the tone and content of the media coverage of this event.”

“I understand and share your frustration,” Purdy said. “It’s difficult to see our profession getting publicly criticized.”

Related

• Farnworth calls inmate death in Corrections van 'disturbing'
• B.C. Corrections officers didn't stop as inmate dies in back of van

He also said he supports the two members involved and offered his “commitment to making sure they have access to all the resources and supports they need to deal with the psychological, emotional and professional aftermath of the incident.”

“I can tell you that, at this point, the employer’s initial review has revealed that both (correctional officers) involved followed policy and protocol and as such, no discipline is required. This is good news and I will keep you posted if any other relevant findings emerge,” Purdy said.

B.C. Corrections said in a statement Wednesday that its investigation has not been completed and no final determinations have yet been made.

“B.C. Corrections is treating this incident very seriously and conducting a critical incident review,” spokeswoman Cindy Rose said in the statement. “However, that process is not yet complete. As such, it would be premature to speculate on whether or not policy and procedures were followed, or whether any discipline may or may not be appropriate.”

She said that when “the review is complete, B.C. Corrections will be able to confirm more details, but will not comment on personnel matters.”

Rose confirmed Corrections “proactively shares information with its BCGEU component chair on important matters related to staff safety and specific incidents.”

“That said, with a critical incident review in progress and not finalized, we would not have been in the position to provide the chair with a definitive conclusion,” she said.

The B.C. Coroners Service is also conducting an investigation into Joseph’s death, as is the RCMP.

Coroners Service media official Andy Watson said Wednesday that their investigation is ongoing and no decision has yet been made about whether to hold an inquest in Joseph’s death.

The RCMP’s North District major crime section has not yet completed its investigation, said Dawn Roberts, director of B.C. communications for the RCMP.

Last month, I broke the sad story of the death of Alex Joseph in the back of a B.C. Corrections van on a long-haul transfer between Prince George and Maple Ridge. Other inmates tried to get him help, but said the guards ignored their shouts and pounded.

Now the union representing the guards has told its members that the guards did everything according to B.C. Corrections policy.

Here’s my update:

A judge has denied killer Robbie Soomel a chance at early parole, saying that a jury is not likely to vote unanimously in Soomel’s favour if he ordered a faint-hope hearing.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice George Macintosh agreed with Soomel’s lawyer Brent Anderson that his client has made strides toward rehabilitation over the last six years in jail.

But Macintosh also said Soomel was involved in two brutal murders in 1997 and 2000 and had poor prison behaviour for the first 12 years of his life sentence.

Soomel was convicted of the first-degree murder of friend-turned-drug trade rival Gurpreet Sohi, who was shot to death in a Delta basement suite in September 2000. And Soomel pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder for assisting with the contracted killing of Jason Herle in Abbotsford in 1997. Soomel was just 18 at the time.

At his murder trial, he was also identified as a suspect in the still-unsolved 1998 assassination of journalist Tara Singh Hayer, who had agreed to testify for the Crown in the Air India terrorism case.

The faint-hope clause allows murderers who killed before December 2011 to apply for a chance at early parole after serving 15 years of their sentence. The clause has been eliminated for those who killed after the 2011 cut-off date.

In a two-step process, a judge only orders a faint-hope hearing before a jury if he or she believes that jury would rule unanimously to reduce the parole ineligibility period.

“I do not find on the balance of probabilities that there is a substantial likelihood that a 12-member jury would find unanimously that Mr. Soomel’s parole ineligibility should be reduced,” Macintosh said Thursday. “I view Mr. Soomel’s prospect at this stage as being more of a long shot than what could be termed a reasonable prospect.”

He said if a jury was empanelled to hear Soomel’s faint-hope application, he doubted it “could get past the fact that Mr. Soomel killed two times — once in the first-degree murder he orchestrated and the other in the conspiracy to gun down a man in front of his girlfriend.”

Soomel watched the proceedings Thursday via video link from William Head prison near Victoria, where he was moved in 2014 after getting classified as a minimum-security inmate. He looked solemn when Macintosh read out his conclusion.

Crown Dan Mulligan argued that Soomel has continued to minimize his role as the leader of the Sohi murder plot and not shown any deep remorse.

He also pointed to dozens of institutional charges and convictions Soomel racked up in prison for offences like possession of a knife and various illicit substances.

Anderson said in his submissions that Soomel has qualified for escorted trips into the community to attend a Sikh temple, has taken many courses in jail, and participates in the annual Williams Head drama production. Soomel meets all the criteria for a faint-hope hearing, he said.

Macintosh said “Soomel’s marked improvement in the last six years is commendable, but it is not enough in my view. The application is dismissed.”

RCMP Cpl. Carla Rivard, who worked on the Hayer murder investigation dubbed Project Expedio, was in court for Soomel’s faint-hope application.

She said afterwards that “it’s the position of the RCMP that Mr. Soomel serve his sentence to its fullest measure.”

“Out of respect for Mr. Sohi and Mr. Herle and their families, we will always be here adamantly opposing any consideration of Mr. Soomel’s early parole,” Rivard said.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

It was just just last week that killer Robbie Soomel’s lawyer tried to convince a B.C. Supreme Court Justice George Macintosh that his client was a changed man and should be able to apply for parole before serving 25 years of his life sentence.

But Macintosh ruled Thursday that despite Soomel’s improved behaviour in prison, a jury was not likely going to vote to lower his parole ineligibility period. Too bad Soomel can’t come clean on the Tara Hayer murder and get a break on the rest of his sentence.

Here’s my story:

A judge has denied killer Robbie Soomel a chance at early parole, saying that a jury is not likely to vote unanimously in Soomel’s favour if he ordered a faint-hope hearing.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice George Macintosh agreed with Soomel’s lawyer Brent Anderson that his client has made strides toward rehabilitation over the last six years in jail.

But Macintosh also said Soomel was involved in two brutal murders in 1997 and 2000 and had poor prison behaviour for the first 12 years of his life sentence.

Soomel was convicted of the first-degree murder of friend-turned-drug trade rival Gurpreet Sohi, who was shot to death in a Delta basement suite in September 2000. And Soomel pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder for assisting with the contracted killing of Jason Herle in Abbotsford in 1997. Soomel was just 18 at the time.

Robbie Soomel in high school yearbook photo

At his murder trial, he was also identified as a suspect in the still-unsolved 1998 assassination of journalist Tara Singh Hayer, who had agreed to testify for the Crown in the Air India terrorism case.

The faint-hope clause allows murderers who killed before December 2011 to apply for a chance at early parole after serving 15 years of their sentence. The clause has been eliminated for those who killed after the 2011 cut-off date.

In a two-step process, a judge only orders a faint-hope hearing before a jury if he or she believes that jury would rule unanimously to reduce the parole ineligibility period.

“I do not find on the balance of probabilities that there is a substantial likelihood that a 12-member jury would find unanimously that Mr. Soomel’s parole ineligibility should be reduced,” Macintosh said Thursday. “I view Mr. Soomel’s prospect at this stage as being more of a long shot than what could be termed a reasonable prospect.”

He said if a jury was empanelled to hear Soomel’s faint-hope application, he doubted it “could get past the fact that Mr. Soomel killed two times — once in the first-degree murder he orchestrated and the other in the conspiracy to gun down a man in front of his girlfriend.”

Soomel watched the proceedings Thursday via video link from William Head prison near Victoria, where he was moved in 2014 after getting classified as a minimum-security inmate. He looked solemn when Macintosh read out his conclusion.

Crown Dan Mulligan argued that Soomel has continued to minimize his role as the leader of the Sohi murder plot and not shown any deep remorse.

He also pointed to dozens of institutional charges and convictions Soomel racked up in prison for offences like possession of a knife and various illicit substances.

Anderson said in his submissions that Soomel has qualified for escorted trips into the community to attend a Sikh temple, has taken many courses in jail, and participates in the annual Williams Head drama production. Soomel meets all the criteria for a faint-hope hearing, he said.

Macintosh said “Soomel’s marked improvement in the last six years is commendable, but it is not enough in my view. The application is dismissed.”

Tara Singh Hayer

RCMP Cpl. Carla Rivard, who worked on the Hayer murder investigation dubbed Project Expedio, was in court for Soomel’s faint-hope application.

She said afterwards that “it’s the position of the RCMP that Mr. Soomel serve his sentence to its fullest measure.”

“Out of respect for Mr. Sohi and Mr. Herle and their families, we will always be here adamantly opposing any consideration of Mr. Soomel’s early parole,” Rivard said.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

For the third time this year, a Metro Vancouver gangster has been shot to death in Mexico.

Jodh Singh Manj, 31, was gunned down after leaving a gym in a commercial complex in the Mexico City neighbourhood of Santa Fe.

He was getting into a vehicle in the building’s parking lot with his wife when masked gunmen opened fire about 1:30 p.m. local time Wednesday.

His Colombian wife was not injured.

Manj, who grew up on Vancouver’s south slope, is a member of the United Nations gang and had been spending long periods of time in Mexico for years.

Metro Vancouver gangster Jodh Singh Manj, 31, has been shot to death in Mexico.

Police sources say he maintained links with Mexican cartels to broker bulk cocaine shipments to Canada that would then be sold by the gang.

He was also a suspect in the 2012 murder in Port Moody of Independent Soldier gangster Randy Naicker, although Manj was never charged. Two others linked to the UN earlier pleaded guilty to having roles in the Naicker murder conspiracy.

Police also say Manj’s violent demise in Mexico is likely an indication that B.C.’s bloody gang war between the UN and the Wolf Pack gang coalition has spilled over into that country.

The Wolf Pack was formed in 2010 by some Hells Angels, some Independent Soldiers members and some Red Scorpion gangsters.

On Aug. 24, Wolf Pack associate and former Metro Vancouver resident Nabil Alkhalil was shot to death in a luxury car dealership in a wealthy suburb of Mexico City. His brother Robby remains in pretrial custody in B.C. charged with the 2012 murder of high-profile gangster Sandip Duhre in Vancouver’s Wall Centre.

And a week earlier, on Aug. 17, West Vancouver’s Guiseppe Bugge, who police describe as a Hells Angels associate, was fatally shot in a posh shopping centre in Guadalajara.

Manj’s murder could have been in retaliation for those of Alkhalil and Bugge, both described as “targets of the UN,” Postmedia sources said Thursday.

One high-profile Hells Angel was posting gleeful comments on his Instagram Wednesday believed to be referencing Manj’s murder.

Sgt. Brenda Winpenny, of the anti-gang Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said Manj’s death shows that those caught in the violent gang lifestyle can’t escape it by fleeing Canada.

“There have been multiple murders of gang members, many of them high-profile, in Mexico over the years and recently,” Winpenny said Thursday. “Gang members who think they can hide out in foreign countries are naive to think they will be able to escape the ramifications of their negative decisions and actions — whether that’s from the police or from those who want them dead.”

VPD Supt. Mike Porteous said police have been aware of Jodh Manj for more than a decade.

He said he was “always in conflicts with other gang figures, involved in violence across Greater Vancouver, the south slope, drugs, most of the gamut of any kind of gang related crime.”

Richard Walker, a spokesman for Global Affairs Canada, said the department “is aware of the death of a Canadian citizen in Mexico. We offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the Canadian citizen.”

“Consular services are being provided to the family. Canadian consular officials are in contact with local authorities to gather additional information,” he said.

Until last year, Manj was facing charges of conspiracy to import and distribute methamphetamine, ecstasy and pseudoephedrine in Oregon, California, Washington and Canada.

The U.S. attorney in Portland alleged Manj had conspired with several others to smuggle ecstasy and pseudoephedrine from Canada into the U.S., then transport methamphetamine north to the Pacific Northwest and into B.C. from 2008 to 2010.

In 2009, Manj was intercepted by U.S. agents talking on the phone to the head of a drug trafficking organization about selling him 15,000 ecstasy pills.

According to U.S. court documents, the charges against Manj were dismissed in February 2017 because the “defendant has not been apprehended, his whereabouts are unknown, and it would be difficult to locate the witnesses and exhibits necessary for successful prosecution of this case.”

Manj had convictions in B.C. for uttering threats and violating court-ordered conditions.

He was one of several gangsters stopped by police in Vancouver’s Kensington Park in October 2010 after the funeral for slain gangster Gurmit Dhak — considered one of the major flashpoints in years of gun violence.

Police believed Manj and the others were meeting to plot a hit on a rival Wolf Pack member for Dhak’s murder. Two of Manj’s associates carried guns and were later charged and convicted.

In September, a Vancouver provincial Ccourt judge stayed a charge against Manj’s older brother Aman in connection with an assault at a Vancouver nightclub on New Year’s Eve in 2015 due to the length of time the case took to get to trial.

Aman Manj was also identified in a 2012 trial as having been hunted by gang rivals who were later caught with firearms in their vehicles and arrested by Vancouver Police.

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As Real Scoop readers noted last night, there were reports out of Mexico about the brutal slaying of another Canadian. I confirmed it was former Vancouver resident Jodh Manj.

Here’s my story:

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For the third time this year, a Metro Vancouver gangster has been shot to death in Mexico.

Jodh Singh Manj, 31, was gunned down after leaving a gym in a commercial complex in the Mexico City neighbourhood of Santa Fe.

He was getting into a vehicle in the building’s parking lot with his wife when masked gunmen opened fire about 1:30 p.m. local time Wednesday.

His Colombian wife was not injured.

Manj, who grew up on Vancouver’s south slope, is a member of the United Nations gang and had been spending long periods of time in Mexico for years.

Police sources say he maintained links with Mexican cartels to broker bulk cocaine shipments to Canada that would then be sold by the gang.

He was also a suspect in the 2012 murder in Port Moody of Independent Soldier gangster Randy Naicker, although Manj was never charged. Two others linked to the UN earlier pleaded guilty to having roles in the Naicker murder conspiracy.

Police also say Manj’s violent demise in Mexico is likely an indication that B.C.’s bloody gang war between the UN and the Wolf Pack gang coalition has spilled over into that country.

The Wolf Pack was formed in 2010 by some Hells Angels, some Independent Soldiers members and some Red Scorpion gangsters.

On Aug. 24, Wolf Pack associate and former Metro Vancouver resident Nabil Alkhalil was shot to death in a luxury car dealership in a wealthy suburb of Mexico City. His brother Robby remains in pretrial custody in B.C. charged with the 2012 murder of high-profile gangster Sandip Duhre in Vancouver’s Wall Centre.

And a week earlier, on Aug. 17, West Vancouver’s Guiseppe Bugge, who police describe as a Hells Angels associate, was fatally shot in a posh shopping centre in Guadalajara.

Manj’s murder could have been in retaliation for those of Alkhalil and Bugge, both described as “targets of the UN,” Postmedia sources said Thursday.

One high-profile Hells Angel was posting gleeful comments on his Instagram Wednesday believed to be referencing Manj’s murder.

Sgt. Brenda Winpenny, of the anti-gang Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said Manj’s death shows that those caught in the violent gang lifestyle can’t escape it by fleeing Canada.

“There have been multiple murders of gang members, many of them high-profile, in Mexico over the years and recently,” Winpenny said Thursday. “Gang members who think they can hide out in foreign countries are naive to think they will be able to escape the ramifications of their negative decisions and actions — whether that’s from the police or from those who want them dead.”

VPD Supt. Mike Porteous said police have been aware of Jodh Manj for more than a decade.

He said he was “always in conflicts with other gang figures, involved in violence across Greater Vancouver, the south slope, drugs, most of the gamut of any kind of gang related crime.”

Richard Walker, a spokesman for Global Affairs Canada, said the department “is aware of the death of a Canadian citizen in Mexico. We offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the Canadian citizen.”

“Consular services are being provided to the family. Canadian consular officials are in contact with local authorities to gather additional information,” he said.

Until last year, Manj was facing charges of conspiracy to import and distribute methamphetamine, ecstasy and pseudoephedrine in Oregon, California, Washington and Canada.

The U.S. attorney in Portland alleged Manj had conspired with several others to smuggle ecstasy and pseudoephedrine from Canada into the U.S., then transport methamphetamine north to the Pacific Northwest and into B.C. from 2008 to 2010.

In 2009, Manj was intercepted by U.S. agents talking on the phone to the head of a drug trafficking organization about selling him 15,000 ecstasy pills.  

According to U.S. court documents, the charges against Manj were dismissed in February 2017 because the “defendant has not been apprehended, his whereabouts are unknown, and it would be difficult to locate the witnesses and exhibits necessary for successful prosecution of this case.”

Manj had convictions in B.C. for uttering threats and violating court-ordered conditions.

He was one of several gangsters stopped by police in Vancouver’s Kensington Park in October 2010 after the funeral for slain gangster Gurmit Dhak — considered one of the major flashpoints in years of gun violence.

Police believed Manj and the others were meeting to plot a hit on a rival Wolf Pack member for Dhak’s murder. Two of Manj’s associates carried guns and were later charged and convicted.

In September, a Vancouver provincial Ccourt judge stayed a charge against Manj’s older brother Aman in connection with an assault at a Vancouver nightclub on New Year’s Eve in 2015 due to the length of time the case took to get to trial.

Aman Manj was also identified in a 2012 trial as having been hunted by gang rivals who were later caught with firearms in their vehicles and arrested by Vancouver Police.

kbolan@postmedia.com

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twitter.com/kbolan

The mother and uncle of a young B.C. woman murdered in Punjab in 2000 have lost their last-ditch attempt to avoid extradition to India.

The B.C. Court of Appeal has dismissed an application from Malkit Kaur Sidhu and Surjit Singh Badesha to have an extradition order against them stayed because they claimed there was an abuse of process.

The two are alleged to have been involved in the so-called honour killing of Sidhu’s daughter Jaswinder “Jassi” Kaur, who ignored her family’s wishes and married a poor rickshaw driver while on vacation in India in 1999.

After the Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously against the accused brother and sister in September 2017, the RCMP escorted Sidhu and Badesha from their B.C. jails to Toronto, where they were placed aboard a flight to India.

But the extraction was “dramatically halted” before the plane disembarked because lawyers for Sidhu and Badesha filed a last-minute court application asking for a review of Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould’s decision to surrender them to Indian authorities.

Jaswinder Kaur “Jassi” Sidhu and her husband Mithu Singh Sidhu. Jassi is the 25-year-old Maple Ridge woman who defied her family to marry the man she loved and was murdered in India on June 8, 2000.

Appeal Court Chief Justice Robert Bauman and Justice Sunny Stromberg-Stein dismissed that request for a judicial review Tuesday.

They said the minister’s decision not to review “new” evidence provided by the defendants about conditions in Indian prisons was reasonable.

“The minister was right to express concern for an effective, expeditious extradition process and respect for the principle of finality,” the appeal court justices said in their written reasons. “It was reasonable for the Minister to conclude that it was in the interests of justice to surrender the applicants.”

Appeal Court Justice Bruce Butler agreed with his colleagues.

The ruling said the Maple Ridge residents have had seven years to present their legal arguments in Canadian courts.

“The applicants are charged with the most serious crimes and have had the opportunity to challenge their extradition over a seven-year period: their submissions implicating India’s prison system have been considered by two Ministers of Justice, this court and the Supreme Court of Canada,” Bauman and Stromberg-Stein wrote.

The judges agreed that there was an abuse of process when Badesha and Sidhu were covertly taken from their jails in September 2017 and transported to Toronto for extradition without being able to talk to their lawyers.

“They were literally at the door of the Delhi-bound plane, literally about to be handed into the custody of the Indian police officers,” Bauman and Stromberg-Stein said.

“There is a sense of palpable frustration apparently motivating the attempted covert surrendering of the applicants in an operation that would deny their ability to review this last step in the proceeding. That motivation would be understandable in a segment, perhaps a large one, of Canadian society.”

But the Canadian government must always play fair, the judges said.

The government conduct in this case has had “a very serious adverse impact on the integrity of the justice system.”

But the conduct was not so egregious as to allow a stay of proceedings.

“This is a close case but we conclude the balance favours denying the stay,” they said.

“The charges these applicants face are the most serious in our criminal justice system and the interests of India, and of our own community, in seeing them heard in court on their merits is very substantial. Indeed we suggest overwhelmingly so.”

Jassi and her husband, Sukhwinder Singh Sidhu, were travelling by scooter in Punjab on June 8, 2000 when they were attacked by a group of armed men. Sukhwinder was seriously injured. Jassi was forced into a car and later found dead on the bank of a canal. Her throat had been cut.

Eleven others in India were also charged in the murder. Seven were convicted and four were acquitted, but four of those found guilty later won on appeal.

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Federal prosecutors are delaying the return of millions seized in a money laundering investigation so that the B.C. director of civil forfeiture can file a claim against the cash, lawyer Matthew Nathanson said Wednesday.

Nathanson argued in B.C. Supreme Court that his client Caixuan Qin, who had charges against her stayed last month, was entitled to have more than $2 million returned immediately.

He told Justice Janet Winteringham that the federal Crown’s position that the money would be returned in late December is designed to aid in a civil forfeiture application.

And Nathanson argued that Qin’s Charter rights are being violated as long as the government retains money seized in October 2016 at her home and her business, Silver International Investment.

“The thrust of the issue here is that civil forfeiture has no rights here. There is no action that’s been commenced. But there certainly appears to be some foot dragging and I know that there has been communications with civil forfeiture in this case,” Nathanson said.

“What is really going on here when you cut through all the smoke is that my client’s rights are engaged now. They are seeking the return of the items now. And there should not be any delay tactics to allow some third party to come in and try and swoop in to grab these funds.”

Until Nov. 22, Qin and her former co-accused Jain Jun Zhu, as well her company, had been charged with laundering the proceeds of crime, possession of property obtained by crime, and failing to ascertain the identity of a client.

The charges were laid in September 2017 after a massive RCMP money laundering investigation dubbed E-Pirate.

The charges were mysteriously stayed three weeks ago by a federal prosecutor in Richmond provincial court. No explanation has been given by police or prosecutors about what went wrong in the case.

Nor were any details disclosed about the stay in Wednesday’s proceedings or in a previous court appearance over the cash.

Federal prosecutor Gerry Sair noted Wednesday that during the last court appearance Nov. 27, an order was issued under section 490 of the Criminal Code to return the seized cash within 30 days.

He said the provision is the normal course by which items seized are returned at the end of a prosecution.

“In two weeks, the 30-day period will be over,” Sair said, adding that the defence lawyers were “essentially asking the court to ignore the law, to override the provision of section 490.”

Sair said the searches related to Qin, Zhu and Silver were “part of a much larger case” where there were “a number of targets.”

Zhu’s lawyer Daniel Song also argued for the immediate return of the money saying the Charter challenge was “simple, direct and clear.”

“The remedy that is sought is also a simple, direct and authoritative remedy,” Song said.

He also said that the director of civil forfeiture has had more than two years to file an application in the case if he was interested in doing so.

Lisa Martz, a lawyer representing the B.C. attorney general, said there was no alleged misconduct in the case that would warrant a remedy under the Charter.

“We submit there has been no Charter breach in this case,” she said. “My friends point to nothing peculiar about the circumstances of their clients. The applicants are in no different position than any other accused person when charges are stayed.”

Winteringham said she would rule Monday morning.

kbolan@postmedia.com

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I was back at B.C. Supreme Court Wednesday to hear Charter arguments from lawyers presenting the two people formerly accused of money laundering in the massive E-Pirate investigation.

While there was a whole day of arguments from defence lawyers, a federal Crown and a lawyer representing the B.C. Attorney General about what should happen to $2 million seized in the case, there was no information about the underlying police investigation and why charges were stayed last month. Hopefully that information will be made public soon.

Here’s my story:

Lawyers for former accused in court to get millions

returned

Two young men involved in a violent Lower Mainland gang conflict were handed lengthy sentences in B.C. Supreme Court Thursday.

Taqdir Singh Gill and Walta Abay, along with five others, were arrested in October 2017 after a Vancouver Police investigation called Project Temper. Gill and Abay were originally charged with conspiracy to commit murder, as well as other counts.

But the murder conspiracy charge was stayed as part of a plea agreement reached in the case.

Gill, now 22, and the purported leader of the “Gill group” pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit arson, conspiracy to discharge a firearm and possession of a loaded prohibited gun.

Justice William Ehrcke accepted as joint submission from Crown and defence lawyers Thursday to sentence Gill to an additional six years in prison on top of 20 months credited for his time in pre-trial custody.

Abay, 24, was handed an additional four years in jail after pleading guilty to being in a vehicle with Gill knowing there was a loaded firearm inside.

Ehrcke noted that both men were relatively young, had pleaded guilty and were remorseful for their crimes.

Family members of each were in the court for the sentencing hearings, held one after the other at the Vancouver Law Courts.

Ehrcke laid out the agreed statement of facts in Gill’s case first.

“As part of a wider effort to investigate ongoing gang conflict on the Lower Mainland of Vancouver, the Vancouver Police Department initiated Project Temper to investigate and suppress the violence being inflicted by Taqdir Gill (Gill) and his associates,” Ehrcke said.

The VPD got a court order allowing it to intercept calls between Gill and his associates starting in early October of 2017.

In the intercepts, Gill directed a youth identified as JL to burn down a Kerrisdale real estate office because “Gill believed that this person’s son owed a significant amount of money to Gill’s bosses,” Ehrcke said.

The youth recruited to do the job owed Gill money and was going to get a break on the debt for torching the business, the judge said.

In an Oct. 12, 2017 call, “Gill told JL that he needed it done tonight.” But the youth slept through his alarm, so the arson was delayed until the next night.

Just before midnight, police stopped a Ford Explorer driven by another associate with JL as a passenger “around the corner from the targeted building.”

Police found two red jerry cans filled with gasoline, a blow torch and a lighter. They let the young men go and they called Gill to advise him they “had been pulled over by the police.”

The youth tried again the next day after Gill said in a call that he needed a message sent that “he wanted the mother f–kers to pay.”

Again police stopped the would-be arsonist, who was carrying two milk jugs full of gas.

Later in October Gill directed another youth and an associate to do a drive-by shooting at a Fraser Street where some rivals lived. He told his crew “how to grab different licence plates and what to do with the rifle afterwards,” Ehrcke said.

The associates were stopped by police “with a loaded rifle” hidden in a pressure washer case in a Ford Explorer near the house to be targeted.

Later that month, Abay asked Gill in an intercepted call if he had “a small bitch” — a reference to a firearm, Ehrcke said.

“Gill responded that he had a nine.”

On Oct. 25, a GPS tracking device was placed on the vehicle of a known drug trafficker and “Abay and Gill were monitoring the movements of the GPS tracking device,” Ehrcke said.

Police removed the device and on Oct. 26, took it to Vancouver, then to Burnaby as Abay and Gill followed in a rented Mercedes.

When police tried to pull them over, the Mercedes drove past “and hit one of the police vehicles,” Ehrcke said.

“It lost control and flipped onto its side.” Gill and Abay crawled out and were arrested.

“A loaded firearm was found in the front passenger door area of the Mercedes.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

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When charges against Taqdir Gill and his associates were announced last May, Vancouver Police Supt. Mike Porteous said the young gangsters were contracting themselves out to do hits for more established gangs. And he said they had an association with the Kang brothers, two of whom faced new charges themselves this past August. But these young gangsters had switched sides and were working for the UN at the time of their arrest.

When it came down to pleading guilty in B.C. Supreme Court this month, the conspiracy to kill charges were stayed for Gill and Walta Abay, who each admitted guilty to lesser counts. And there was no mention of any larger gang.

There was, however, interesting insight into how police can to a successful, relatively compressed investigation into gang violence and get some convictions – all in less than a year and a half.

Here’s my story:

Two young men involved in a violent Lower Mainland gang conflict were handed lengthy sentences in B.C. Supreme Court Thursday.

Taqdir Singh Gill and Walta Abay, along with five others, were arrested in October 2017 after a Vancouver Police and Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit investigation called Project Temper. Gill and Abay were originally charged with conspiracy to commit murder, as well as other counts.

But the murder conspiracy charge was stayed as part of a plea agreement reached in the case.

Gill, now 22, and the purported leader of the “Gill group” pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit arson, conspiracy to discharge a firearm and possession of a loaded prohibited gun.

Justice William Ehrcke accepted as joint submission from Crown and defence lawyers Thursday to sentence Gill to an additional six years in prison on top of 20 months credited for his time in pre-trial custody.

Abay, 24, was handed an additional four years in jail after pleading guilty to being in a vehicle with Gill knowing there was a loaded firearm inside.

Ehrcke noted that both men were relatively young, had pleaded guilty and were remorseful for their crimes.

Family members of each were in the court for the sentencing hearings, held one after the other at the Vancouver Law Courts.

Ehrcke laid out the agreed statement of facts in Gill’s case first.

“As part of a wider effort to investigate ongoing gang conflict on the Lower Mainland of Vancouver, the Vancouver Police Department initiated Project Temper to investigate and suppress the violence being inflicted by Taqdir Gill (Gill) and his associates,” Ehrcke said.

The VPD got a court order allowing it to intercept calls between Gill and his associates starting in early October of 2017.

In the intercepts, Gill directed a youth identified as JL to burn down a Kerrisdale real estate office because “Gill believed that this person’s son owed a significant amount of money to Gill’s bosses,” Ehrcke said.

The youth recruited to do the job owed Gill money and was going to get a break on the debt for torching the business, the judge said.

In an Oct. 12, 2017 call, “Gill told JL that he needed it done tonight.” But the youth slept through his alarm, so the arson was delayed until the next night.

Just before midnight, police stopped a Ford Explorer driven by another associate with JL as a passenger “around the corner from the targeted building.”

Police found two red jerry cans filled with gasoline, a blow torch and a lighter. They let the young men go and they called Gill to advise him they “had been pulled over by the police.”

The youth tried again the next day after Gill said in a call that he needed a message sent that “he wanted the mother f–kers to pay.”

Again police stopped the would-be arsonist, who was carrying two milk jugs full of gas.

Later in October Gill directed another youth and an associate to do a drive-by shooting at a Fraser Street where some rivals lived. He told his crew “how to grab different licence plates and what to do with the rifle afterwards,” Ehrcke said.

The associates were stopped by police “with a loaded rifle” hidden in a pressure washer case in a Ford Explorer near the house to be targeted.

Later that month, Abay asked Gill in an intercepted call if he had “a small bitch” — a reference to a firearm, Ehrcke said.

“Gill responded that he had a nine.”

On Oct. 25, a GPS tracking device was placed on the vehicle of a known drug trafficker and “Abay and Gill were monitoring the movements of the GPS tracking device,” Ehrcke said.

Police removed the device and on Oct. 26, took it to Vancouver, then to Burnaby as Abay and Gill followed in a rented Mercedes.

When police tried to pull them over, the Mercedes drove past “and hit one of the police vehicles,” Ehrcke said.

“It lost control and flipped onto its side.” Gill and Abay crawled out and were arrested.

“A loaded firearm was found in the front passenger door area of the Mercedes.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

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A Burnaby man who called 911 and admitted he stabbed his wife with a machete has been found not criminally responsible for killing her because of the serious mental illness he was suffering from at the time.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Mike Tammen ruled Friday that Parveen Maan had no ability to control his actions because of the powerful voices in his head telling him to kill his wife Goldie in February 2017.

“This case is both tragic and troubling — tragic because it concerns the death of the mother of two young children at the hands of her husband, the father of those children,” Tammen said.

“The most troubling aspect of the case is the fact that the accused at the time he took his wife’s life was almost certainly suffering from a serious mental illness and likely in the throes of a psychotic episode of some severity.”

Tammen noted that two psychiatrists who testified as experts for both the Crown and the defence agreed that Maan, 48, suffered from mental illness for years prior to the slaying and that he was hearing voices.

But they disagreed on whether he fully understood that what he was doing was morally wrong when he attacked Goldie in their Burnaby home and stabbed her more than 135 times.

Maan called 911 in the early afternoon asking police to come to the family home in the 7900-block of 18th Ave. His two kids were at school at the time.

When asked by the operator what had happened, he said “Ah, ah frankly, I kill my wife.”

He said that his wife was getting violent and using bad language, “So I kill.”

Tammen said that despite Maan’s apparently calm demeanour during the call and while he was taken into police custody, there was ample evidence of his mental illness dating back years.

Maan testified that he had been hospitalized in India and prescribed anti-psychotics in 1998, years before immigrating to Canada. He told a close friend in the weeks before the slaying that he was hearing voices.

“There is no doubt the accused was suffering from a mental disorder at the relevant time and had been so afflicted for many years,” Tammen said.

He said while neither expert witness had a precise diagnosis for Maan’s condition, “Mr. Maan was afflicted by a mental disorder which would fall somewhere on the continuum of schizoid disorders” and was suffering delusions or hallucinations.

Tammen said he found Maan to be honest when he testified and was not attempting to embellish his condition. Maan told the court that he believed the voices in his head, which he said spoke in both Hindi and Punjabi, were his landlord and some of his neighbours.

“I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that because of his mental condition — what was once called insanity — Mr. Maan lacked the capacity to assess the moral wrongfulness of his actions and thus lacked the capacity for rational choice,” Tammen said. “His mind and overall cognitive processes were so overwhelmed by the command voices that he felt compelled to follow them without assessing whether his actions were right or wrong.”

Tammen ordered Maan to remain in custody at the forensic psychiatric hospital for at least the next 90 days until the B.C. Review Board can assess his case.

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The B.C. Prosecution Service has stayed an aggravated assault charge laid in August against a convicted drug smuggler.

Jody Archie York had been charged following an altercation at Monte Lake, which is between Vernon and Kamloops.

At the time, the RCMP said one man was injured when he was struck with a golf club, allegedly by York, before the man’s friend hit York with a machete.

York later said he was attacked first by the machete-wielding man and was only defending himself at the time.

Crown spokesman Dan McLaughlin confirmed to Postmedia this week that the charge was stayed on Nov. 22, but would not provide detailed reasons.

“The decision to stay the charges in this case was made after further information was received by the prosecutor with conduct of the file,” McLaughlin said. “After reviewing this information and the rest of the file materials, the prosecutor concluded the charge approval standard could no longer be met. In these circumstances, a stay of proceedings is the appropriate course of action.”

McLaughlin said that charge assessment guidelines dictate that “charges will only be approved or continued where Crown Counsel is satisfied that the evidence gathered by the investigative agency provides a substantial likelihood of conviction and, if so, that a prosecution is required in the public interest.”

“In this case, the prosecutor concluded the test was no longer met and directed the stay of proceedings,” McLaughlin said.

In 2011, York was sentenced in the U.S. to five years in prison as a leader of a major international drug smuggling ring who prosecutors said worked on behalf of B.C. Hells Angels.

York told a judge at his Seattle sentencing that he had already reformed and had turned away from gang life.

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I wanted to update readers about the status of the charge laid last summer against Jody York. It was stayed Nov, 22. Crown is not saying much about why.

Here’s my update:

More than 300 mourners packed a Maple Ridge church Saturday to remember slain Hells Angel Chad Wilson.

Some members of the notorious biker gang and their support clubs arrived on Harleys — many of which had temporary one-day insurance to attend the service at the Maple Ridge Alliance Church on Dewdney Trunk Road.

Others, like senior Vancouver member and sometimes spokesman Rick Ciarniello, arrived by cars or limousine.

Police from the B.C. Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, the Vancouver Police Department and various RCMP detachments were also on hand, monitoring the event and photographing those in attendance.

Wilson, 43, was a member of the Surrey-based Hardside chapter when he was found shot to death under the Golden Ears Bridge in Maple Ridge on Nov. 18.

The Integrated Homicide Team has not disclosed a motive for Wilson’s death beyond a link to his membership in a criminal organization.

Postmedia has learned that investigators are looking at the possibility his death resulted from an internal dispute within the Hells Angels. Wilson, with a long history in the drug trade, also had many others who could have wanted him dead.

While a member of the San Diego “Dago” chapter of the Hells Angels in 2006, he injured several members of the Outlaws in a shootout in South Dakota. He was later acquitted on attempted murder charges but pleaded guilty to being an alien in possession of a firearm.

Once released from jail, Wilson returned to B.C. and joined the Haney Hells Angels chapter. He was convicted in Spain several years ago of importing a tonne of cocaine into the country.

Again, he returned to B.C., later splitting from the Haney chapter and joining the new Hardside group.

His Hardside brothers handed out arm bands that said “in memory of Chad,” as well as black T-shirts with his image on the front and “forever Bumps” on the back.

B.C. Hells Angels were joined by bikers wearing HA patches from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, P.E.I. and New Brunswick.

Former B.C. resident Damion Ryan, a Hells Angel in Greece, came from Europe for the service, arriving with a scarf masking his face. Ryan wore a “Filthy Few” patch on the front of his camouflage vest — which normally indicates a biker’s role as an enforcer.

Police say Canadian Hells Angels are banned from wearing that patch.

With Ryan was another B.C. man, Andreas Terezakis, whose father Tony was convicted in 2006 of trafficking drugs in the Downtown Eastside and brutally assaulting addicts who owed him money. The younger Terezakis wore a Greek Hells Angels vest to the funeral with the bottom “rocker” patch only, indicating he is a prospective member of Ryan’s chapter.

Also at the service were members of support or puppet clubs, including the Throttle Lockers from the Okanagan, the Devil’s Army from Campbell River, the Langford Savages, the Teamsters’ Horsemen, Surrey’s Shadow Club, the Jesters and the Veterans MC.

Newer support clubs were also present, like the Street Reapers of Fort Langley, the Lynchmen and the Dirty Bikers.

One Throttle Locker member wore a sticker on his helmet that said “shoot informants, not drugs.”

Maple Ridge Alliance Church Pastor Neil Penner said he was surprised at how many people attended the service. He said the church welcomes anybody who wants to respectfully worship.

“They have great respect for the church,” he said, of those who attended Wilson’s funeral.

Asked why he would welcome the Hells Angels, Penner said: “I take any opportunity to help people.”

After the funeral, the bikers rode over the same bridge under which Wilson was found dead to attend a wake at the Hardside’s Surrey clubhouse. Again police followed to keep watch.

Sgt. Brenda Winpenny said officers monitored Saturday’s events because “outlaw motorcycle gangs are a priority for CFSEU.”

“The murder of Chad Wilson was significant and we expected there to be in excess of 300 bikers at his funeral,” she said.

“As we know from past investigations, some members of the Hells Angels are involved in drugs, weapons and violence-related offences. Therefore, CFSEU had a number of our uniformed gang enforcement team and other team members present to gather intelligence and assist our policing partners in ensuring public safety.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

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