Witness “A” continued his testimony at the Cory Vallee murder trial Wednesday. He talked more about his cross-border drug smuggling and how he worried he might be arrested after gang leader Clay Roueche was picked up in Texas in May 2008.
He also described how he would launder his B.C. drug money by paying someone cash in Canada and then getting U.S. dollars picked up in Los Angeles and brought to him.
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Kevin LeClair was shot outside the IGA in Langley’s Thunderbird Village Mall on Feb. 6, 2009.
Witness A says Vallee brought in to kill Bacons
A former United Nations member says he was introduced to accused killer Cory Vallee by gang leader Clay Roueche as someone who would help kill the Bacon brothers.
The man, who can only be identified as “A,” testified at Vallee’s murder trial Wednesday that he was told Vallee had come to B.C. from “back out east” to help the UN gang.
Witness A said Roueche identified Vallee only as “Frankie” though he later learned Vallee’s real identity.
The meeting took place at the home of another UN gangster in Mission, A told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Janice Dillon.
Vallee is charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Red Scorpion rival Kevin LeClair on Feb. 6. 2009. And he is also on trial for conspiracy to kill Jonathan, Jarrod and Jamie Bacon over several months in 2008 and 2009.
The former UN gangster is the fourth to testify against Vallee after striking deals with prosecutors in the case.
He said that other UN members were at a Mission house the day he met Vallee, including Conor D’Monte, who is also charged with murder but has been a fugitive since 2011.
Conor Vincent D’Monte.
“We were talking about getting the Bacon brothers,” A testified.
Crown Elizabeth Rennie asked him: “What does that mean getting the Bacon brothers?”
Replied A: “Trying to plan out shooting them.”
And he said he was told that Vallee “was going to shoot the Bacons.”
Roueche asked A to drive Vallee around to locations where the Bacons and the Red Scorpions were known to frequent, he testified.
“He asked me to drive him around and show him different places in Abby and Mission,” A said. “He asked me to show him different Bacon hangouts and tell him the lay of the land and show him around town.”
A said that he became friendly with Vallee, who A invited to his home on more than one occasion.
He said he learned Vallee’s real name one night, likely in 2008, when they were driving around with two other UN gangsters and were stopped by police.
At the time they were on their way to meet someone who offered them the electronic key to get into the apartment building where Red Scorpion leader Mike Le lived.
Asked why they needed the electronic key fob, A testified: “cuz that was where Mike Le lived and we would have access to go and shoot him.”
But their plan was foiled when they were stopped and questioned by police.
Vallee was the only one in the vehicle with a gun on him, A said.
“I remember that Cory hid it in his jacket when he was being questioned.”
He said all four were told to get out of the vehicle as police searched it. Vallee had left his jacket and gun inside, but police didn’t find it, A testified.
He has spent hours over the last two days identifiying other UN members and associates in photographs, as well as providing their nicknames and the email addresses they used to communicate on encrypted BlackBerries that would be replaced ever few months.
A said those involved in the plot to kill the Bacon brothers would share licence plates, vehicle descriptions and other information about the brothers – who they codenamed the Porks – over their BlackBerries.
Asked why the UN wanted to kill the notorious siblings, A said: “We were beefing with them.”
“Why were you beefing with them?” Rennie asked.
Replied A: “I don’t know – just gang stuff I guess.”
The trial continues.
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