KELOWNA — A B.C. Supreme Court judge will finally begin hearing the Crown’s case against three gangsters accused of the 2011 murder of Jonathan Bacon today.
Justice Allan Betton was going to issue his ruling first on whether the trial of Jujhar Khun-Khun, Jason McBride and Michael Jones should go ahead at all.
But Betton said Monday he needed more time to decide on a defence application to throw out the charges because of the length of time the case has taken to get to trial.
Lawyers for the three accused have been arguing over the last two weeks that the four years the case has taken to get to trial violates the Charter rights of the suspects.
Betton said he now hopes to release his decision on the defence application by next week.
In the meantime, the Crown will open its case against the trio.
All three accused stood in court Monday for their arraignment. Each pleaded not guilty.
Khun-Khun, Jones and McBride were charged with murder and attempted murder in early 2013, 18 months after Bacon was shot to death in the same block as the courthouse now hosting his accused killers.
At the time, the Red Scorpion leader was in a Porsche Cayenne along with his Hells Angels pal Larry Amero, Independent Soldier associate James Riach and two women, Leah Hadden-Watts and Lyndsey Black.
Amero and the two women were injured, but Riach was merely grazed.
The public gunplay left local residents stunned and police across B.C. scrambling to find those responsible and contain retaliatory violence.
MORE TO COME…
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