After a devastating week imagining that Jamie Bacon might soon be free, Eileen Mohan received some good news Monday – the Crown has filed an appeal of the decision to stay murder charges against the Red Scorpion gangster.
Meanwhile, my colleague covered charges laid in Kamloops against Red Scorpion associates.
Jamie Bacon in 2010
Crown files appeal of Jamie Bacon’s stay of proceedings
The B.C. attorney-general will appeal a controversial court ruling earlier this month to stay murder and conspiracy charges against gangster Jamie Bacon in the Surrey Six slayings.
The B.C. Prosecution Service announced Monday that it has filed documents with the B.C. Court of Appeal to set aside the Dec. 1 decision of B.C. Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Ker.
Ker released very few details about why she stayed the charges after an in-camera application by Bacon’s legal team. She cited the need for secrecy because of evidence related to a confidential informant, who is guaranteed protection of their identity.
Eileen Mohan, whose son Christopher was an innocent bystander in the Surrey Six murders, said she was relieved that the Crown moved so quickly to file an appeal.
“I just hope and pray that there will be a good outcome,” said Mohan, who was devastated when Bacon’s charges were thrown out.
Eileen Mohan
Crown spokesman Dan McLaughlin said in a news release that prosecutors reviewed Ker’s decision and were satisfied that there are errors of law and that “a reasonable argument can be made that the ruling would not necessarily have been issued if the errors were not made.”
He also said it was in the public interest to appeal.
The Crown is asking that a new trial be ordered.
“Although the fact of the appeal is public, it is anticipated that further filings with the court as well as some or all of the appeal proceedings will be sealed or closed to the public, given the nature of the ruling under appeal,” he said. “As the matter is now under appeal and remains the subject of a sealing order, there will be no further comment by the (prosecution service) on the circumstances of the case, the decision under appeal, or the grounds for the appeal.”
Most of the pre-trial hearings in Bacon’s case were heard in secret, with even defence lawyers excluded from the courtroom. Bacon, 32, was represented by an “amicus” or friend of the court.
Bacon was arrested on April 3, 2009 and charged with plotting the murder of gang rival Corey Lal, as well as Lal’s first-degree murder on Oct. 19, 2007 in a Surrey high-rise.
Hitmen from Bacon’s Red Scorpion gang — Cody Haevischer and Matthew Johnston — were convicted of forcing their way into a penthouse apartment in the Balmoral Tower and executing Lal, his brother Michael and drug dealers Ryan Bartolomeo and Eddie Narong, as well as bystanders Chris Mohan and Ed Schellenberg. They were accompanied by a man who can only be identified as Person X. He earlier pled guilty to second-degree murder.
Both Haevischer and Johnston were convicted of first-degree murder, but have appealed their convictions.
