VANCOUVER — Three gangsters on trial for the 2011 murder of Red Scorpion leader Jonathan Bacon are expected to plead guilty to lesser charges when their trial resumes on May 1, Crown spokesman Dan McLaughlin confirmed Friday.
A new indictment was sworn this week against Jason McBride, Jujhar Khun-Khun and Michael Jones.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Allan Bretton was notified of the plea deal on Friday morning.
All three men had been facing charges of first-degree murder and attempted murder for the Aug. 14, 2011, shooting outside Kelowna’s Delta Grand Hotel.
Bacon was fatally wounded when the Porsche Cayenne he was in was sprayed with bullets in front of shocked onlookers.
Also wounded was the Cayenne’s driver — Hells Angel Larry Amero — and passengers Leah Hadden-Watts and Lyndsey Black. Independent Soldier James Riach jumped out as the shooting started and escaped injury.
McLaughlin said the new indictment in the case was filed on April 19.
McBride is now charged with the second-degree murder of Bacon and the attempted murders of Amero, Riach, Hadden-Watts and Black.
Jones and Khun-Khun are now charged with conspiring with McBride, the late Sukh Dhak and others to commit the murders of Amero, Riach and Bacon between June 1 and Aug. 14, 2011.
“The matter has now been adjourned to May 1, 2018. It is anticipated that guilty pleas will be entered at that time to all charges on the new indictment, and the sentencing hearing will proceed on the basis of a joint submission,” McLaughlin said.
The trial of the three gangsters began in Kelowna on May 29, 2017.
Crown prosecutor Dave Ruse promised dramatic evidence in his opening statement. He said that DNA of all three accused was found on hoodies and a ball cap discarded after the murder.
And he said former gangsters-turned-Crown witnesses would testify that all three accused were part of the team hunting Amero, Bacon and Riach because the Sukh Dhak believed the trio was behind the murder of his brother, Gurmit, in Burnaby in October 2010.
Ruse said that Khun-Khun, McBride, Jones and a fourth man, Manny Hairan, arrived in Kelowna early on the morning of Aug. 14, 2011, to kill Amero and his friends after they had been spotted partying in the lakeside resort town.
The accused walked along the waterfront behind the Delta Grand Hotel where Amero and his group were staying and “saw a large orange boat named Steroids and Silicone tied up. … Mr. McBride recognized that as Larry’s boat, and instructed them to keep their eyes open,” Ruse said.
Later that day, the Dhak associates went back to the hotel and waited. Amero, Bacon, Riach, Hadden-Watts and Black had checked out and gotten into the Porsche. Bacon was in the front beside Amero. The women were in the back beside Riach.
“A Ford Explorer pulled up to the passenger side of the Porsche. Gunmen opened fire from within and outside the Explorer,” Ruse said.
“The gunmen eventually got into their vehicle and sped off.”
Ruse said the firearms used in the murder — a Glock and two Norincos — were found at a construction site north of Kelowna.
