Court told vehicle used in gang murder discovered burning

A few hours after Jonathan Bacon was killed in a gang shooting outside the Delta Grand hotel in Kelowna, the suspected getaway vehicle was found burning on a dirt road between Lake Country and Vernon.

Jason McBride, Michael Jones and Jujhar Khun-Khun are on trial for the August 2011 slaying of Bacon, along with the attempted murder of four others. They have pleaded not guilty on all counts. On Aug. 14, 2011, RCMP Cpl. David Albrecht was at the scene of the shooting when he was called to attend a vehicle fire.

Fire crews had responded to a forest fire off Commonage Road, sparked by a vehicle that was engulfed in flames.

Albrecht and his partner arrived on scene at 7:05 p.m., after fire crews had already extinguished the fire and left.

The officers parked on Commonage Road and walked about 600 metres up the winding private road until they came across the vehicle, he said in court in Kelowna on Tuesday.

The vehicle, a Ford Explorer, could not be seen from Commonage Road and was in a remote area, said Albrecht.

“I found it interesting there would be a vehicle there, because it’s not, in my opinion, something you’d see driving by.”

Trees on either side of the vehicle were burned from the fire.

“The vehicle was completely burned,” said Albrecht. “In my service, I don’t know if I’ve seen such total destruction.”

While the body of the vehicle remained fairly intact, the fenders and the hood were melted off, said Albrecht.

The inside of the vehicle was completely charred, and the windows and the windshield were broken, with glass surrounding the vehicle.

Albrecht also noted a dent on the driver’sside door, which he said could have been caused by a collision or by the extreme heat of the fire.

No front licence plate was found at the scene, but Albrecht noticed a clump of something on the ground behind the vehicle, underneath where the rear licence plate should be.

“I flipped it over, and in fact it was a B.C. licence plate,” he said.

A photo of the licence plate shown in court read 974 TFS.

Albrecht’s partner ran the licence plate number to see who it belonged to, he said.

Previously in the trial, Crown counsel said a Ford Explorer used in the shooting belonged to Jones, one of the accused.

Albrecht was not able to locate the vehicle identification number.

The trial continues.