Three Greeks gangsters lose appeal of murder convictions

Three members of the notorious Greeks gang from Vernon lost appeals of their November 2012 murder convictions.

The B.C. Court of Appeal announced in a brief online statement that the appeals of gang leader Peter Manolakos and his associates, Leslie Podolski and Sheldon Richard O’Donnell, had all been dismissed.

The judges’ reasons were not released because they have not yet had time to edit out information about Crown witnesses who were subject to sweeping publication bans.

“This is a statement that will be posted on the court’s website concerning these appeals until it is replaced with redacted reasons for judgment,” the court’s public statement said. “The publication ban means that the full reasons for judgment must be sealed and only a redacted version complying with the ban may be released to the public.”

The statement said Crown prosecutors and defence lawyers were provided with unedited reasons for judgment on Wednesday.

Manolakos, Podolski and O’Donnell are three of five men convicted by a jury of various counts in the murders of David Marnuik, Thomas Bryce and Ronald Thom in the Vernon area between July 2004 and May 2005.

Marnuik, who delivered drugs for the Greeks, was beaten to death with a baseball bat, a hammer and a blowtorch because he took off with cash and the gang’s cellphone in the middle of a shift in the summer of 2004.

Bryce was a rival drug trafficker fighting the Greeks for turf when he was beaten with a wooden bat, then stomped, at a popular beach near Vernon in November 2004. He died 17 days later in hospital.

Thom was shot to death on May 31, 2005, because Manolakos mistakenly believed Thom provided police with information about the Greeks’ criminal activity.

Manolakos was convicted of the first-degree murder of Thom as well as manslaughter in Marnuik’s death. O’Donnell was convicted of first-degree murder in the Thom slaying and second-degree murder in the deaths of Marnuik and Bryce. Podolski was found guilty of the first-degree murder of Marnuik.

All three are serving life sentences. They appealed their convictions on 16 grounds, all of which were dismissed.

The appeal was heard at the Vancouver Law Courts last June before Justices Mary Saunders, Daphne Smith and Lauri Ann Fenlon.

The men were found to be part of a notorious drug trafficking gang operating in the North Okanagan called the Greeks, headed by Manolakos, who is of Greek heritage.

Manolakos provided gold rings and vests to members, who also had tattoos of “ema” — “blood” in Greek — and the omega symbol.

Jurors also heard the Greeks had different ranks within the organization, including “runners” like Marnuik who worked the drug lines at the street level, “bankers” who would supply drugs to the runners and collect profits, and “enforcers” who would mete out punishment to those who broke the gang’s rules.