Hells Angels associate abandons appeal in killing
COURT: Daniel McRae got five years in Kelowna man’s death
One of three Hells Angels associates appealing their convictions for manslaughter in the brutal slaying of Kelowna dad Dain Phillips is abandoning his appeal.
On Tuesday, Crown counsel John Gordon told a panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal that Daniel McRae also was declining to proceed with an appeal of his five-year jail term.
He said McRae’s two co-accused who were convicted of manslaughter — McRae’s brother, Matthew McRae, and Anson Schell — still have appeals scheduled to be heard in October.
Following a bail hearing, Matthew McRae, who was 19 at the time of the offence and received a 42-month jail term, was released on a $200,000 surety pending his appeal while Daniel McRae, 20 at the time of the slaying, was denied bail. Schell remains in custody.
In June 2011, Phillips, 51, was severely beaten by men wielding baseball bats and hammers. He was left bleeding on the side of a road and never regained consciousness. He was rushed to the hospital but later taken off life support.
Norman Cocks and Robert Thomas, two full-patch members of the notorious motorcycle gang, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the Phillips slaying and were sentenced to 15 years in jail.
They were found to have wielded the weapons during the fatal assault.
The McRae brothers, Schell and Robert Cocks, the father of Norman Cocks, went to trial. Robert Cocks was acquitted.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Mark McEwan concluded that the McRae brothers and Schell, who were present at the scene of the crime but did not participate directly in the attack, were nonetheless parties to the offence.
The slaying happened following a petty dispute between the McRae brothers and two sons of the victim, Kaylin and Kody Phillips. The killing was preceded by a number of incidents, including one in which Norman Cocks and Daniel McRae confronted Kody Phillips, with Cocks punching Phillips in the head.