KELOWNA — Three gangsters who admitted their roles in the 2011 murder plot that left Jonathan Bacon dead and three others wounded were handed lengthy prison terms in B.C. Supreme Court here Wednesday.
Justice Allan Betton accepted a joint sentencing submission from Crown and defence lawyers for Jason McBride, Jujhar Khun-Khun and Michael Jones.
McBride pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree murder and attempted murder, admitting he blasted an AK-47-like automatic rifle at Bacon and others in a Porsche Cayenne outside the Delta Grand hotel on a sunny afternoon in August 2011. Betton sentenced McBride to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 18 years.
Jones and Khun-Khun each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder – Jones for driving the killers to the execution and Khun-Khun for being part of the hunt.
Each was sentenced to 18 years, with a net term of 10 years after credit for pretrial custody.
Betton said both Jones and Khun-Khun should serve at least half their remaining sentence because of “the peculiar and egregious nature of these matters [and] the prolonged element of the conspiracy.”
“This was a planned and calculated attack with magnificent risk to innocent persons,” Betton said.
Normally inmates can apply for parole at the one-third mark of their sentence.
Jujhar Khun-Khun (left), charged with the death of Jonathan Bacon in a turf war over drugs. Sukh Dhak is on the right.
Betton said the brazen gangland shooting in a crowded downtown area “shocked the community.”
“That area, as could be expected, was busy with people at and around the hotel going about their business,” he told a packed, high-security courtroom.
Wounded in the attack was Hells Angel Larry Amero and back-seat passengers Leah Hadden-Watts and Lyndsay Black. Independent Soldier James Riach jumped out of the Porsche as the shooting began and escaped injury.
Betton noted the gangster victims, who had formed the Wolf Pack coalition, “had become targets of retaliation for the shooting death of Gurmit Dhak” in October 2010.
Dhak’s brother Sukh plotted revenge, calling on McBride, Jones, Khun-Khun and other allies and associates to help in the hunt.
Hells Angel Larry Ronald Amero in file photo
Sukh Dhak was later murdered in November 2012. Amero is now charged with conspiracy to kill the younger Dhak brother.
When Sukh Dhak and his hitmen learned on Aug. 13, 2011 that his Wolf Pack rivals were in Kelowna, “the conspiracy that had been on-going was then fine-tuned and led to the critical events that occurred just after 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 14,” Betton said.
“That no one else was injured or killed — but for it being true — would seem unbelievable.”
Forty-five expended cartridges were recovered outside the Delta Grand. There were 34 bullet holes in the Porsche. One 9mm bullet hit the window of the Kelowna Art Gallery across the street and another went through a wall and into a hair salon.
Betton said the joint sentencing submissions adequately addressed the nature of the crime and some of the challenges that the Crown had with the case — a series of unsavoury co-operating witnesses and former associates of the accused and months of delays in the proceedings related to disclosure issues.
“I do accept the joint submissions. In my view, reasonable and informed persons aware of all the relevant circumstances could not see the joint submission as reflecting a break down in the proper functioning in the justice system,” Betton said.
“It has been a highly complex and difficult case with many challenges and there are significant reasons for uncertainly as to what the ultimate outcome would have been had it not been for these … pleas that have been entered.”
All three men, each dressed in a dark suit, stood as Betton delivered their fate. They then shook hands with their lawyers before being led away by sheriffs.
Outside the courthouse, Sgt. Brenda Winpenny, of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said hundreds of officers from the anti-gang agency have been involved in the investigation, dubbed E-Nitrogen.
Supt. Brent Mundle, officer in charge of the Kelowna RCMP, addresses reporters outside the Kelowna Courthouse on May 2, 2018 about sentencing in the Jon Bacon murder case. Sgt. Brenda Winpenny is on the right.
The policing costs top $9 million dollars, she told reporters.
“The outcome of today is a successful prosecution,” Winpenny said. “These investigations are very complex and very involved.”
Supt. Brent Mundle, who heads the Kelowna RCMP, said the “brazen daytime shooting was directly related to organized crime.”
“While thankfully rare, I recognize that these violent and public crimes can have a dramatic impact on the people who live, work in and visit our communities,” Mundle said.
He said he hoped the sentencing “will provide closure to those who may still be affected by these events.
CFSEU Chief Officer Kevin Hackett said the convictions and long sentences should “serve as a reminder to those involved in perpetrating gang violence that we will be relentless and resolute as we help bring those individuals who threaten our communities with gun violence to account.”
Blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop
Related
CLICK HERE to report a typo.
Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.