Accused killer said he burned SUV, trial told

Friend of Michael Jones testifies at trial of 3 men accused of murder, attempted murder in 2011 killing of Jonathan Bacon

Accused killer Michael Jones told a friend he’d burned his own vehicle, the Jonathan Bacon murder trial heard Wednesday.

A witness who can’t be named said he asked Jones what had happened to the Ford Explorer he had been driving.

“He gave me a short answer,” the witness said. “He told me, ‘It’s gone. I burnt it.’”

The witness, a friend of Jones who’d engaged in many criminal activities with him, said he didn’t pursue the matter.

“Then I just left it alone and didn’t ask him anymore about it,” the witness said.

The conversation is significant from the Crown’s point of view because the green Ford Explorer police say was used as a getaway vehicle after Bacon was killed Aug. 14, 2011, in downtown Kelowna was later found torched and abandoned in Lake Country.

Court heard Jones replaced the Ford Explorer, which had a secret compartment activated by pressing the power seat buttons in a certain way, with a Volkswagen Toureg.

“He told me he’d made some money recently and had purchased another vehicle,” said the witness.

The witness described a yearslong friendship with Jones, during which time they bought and sold drugs like cocaine and crack cocaine, and raided many marijuana grow-ops in different parts of B.C., always wearing black clothes with masks and gloves, and sometimes carrying guns.

Often, there was nobody at the grow-ops and the witness said he, Jones and others quickly cut and bagged the pot plants and left. On occasion, there were people tending the grow-ops and fights broke out, with the combatants armed with weapons like bear spray and baseball bats.

During one bungled grow rip, the witness said, he and another man were shot at but escaped unhurt.

Jones carried a 9-mm handgun, the witness said. Jones also gave the witness a gun of his own in payment for a drug debt, court heart.

The witness said he and Jones socialized frequently, working out together, visiting each other’s homes, and going for lunch and coffee.

“We became pretty good friends and spent a lot of time together,” the witness said.

The witness was the first of several people with criminal histories, whose names are protected by a publication ban, expected to be called by the Crown. The witness is currently incarcerated on another matter. Justice Allan Betton has to rule on whether the witness’s testimony will be accepted into evidence.

After hearing about the Bacon shooting in Kelowna outside the front entrance of the Delta Grand hotel, which also left four people injured, the witness said he texted Jones on an encrypted Black-Berry to ask about his well-being.

“He and I were close at the time and I just wanted to make sure he was OK,” the witness said.

Jones did not immediately reply, court heard.

The witness described Jones as a reckless driver, and said he told him so directly one time in 2012. The witness said Jones responded by saying that “on the Kelowna trip” one of the people he was with was also “freaked out” by his driving.

Jones, Jason McBride and Jujhar Khun-Khun are charged with the murder of Bacon, a Lower Mainland gangster, and the attempted murder of four other people.

During his morning testimony, the witness never looked at the three accused until instructed by Crown prosecutor David Ruse to identify McBride, whom the witness said he had met through his friendship with Jones.

The witness turned slowly toward McBride and identified him as wearing a blue suit and sitting farthest right among the accused.

The trial continues.