Hitman convicted of gangster’s murder outside a strip mall in Langley in 2009
VANCOUVER — United Nations gang hitman Cory Vallee was convicted Friday of conspiring to kill the notorious Bacon brothers and murdering one of their closest friends.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Janice Dillon said the Crown had proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt that Vallee was brought in to the UN as a hitman, and that he was one of two shooters who killed Red Scorpion Kevin LeClair outside a Langley strip mall on Feb. 6, 2009.
“The decision to kill LeClair was planned and deliberate, with time to assess the situation,” Dillon said. “Cory Vallee was a member of the conspiracy to kill members of the Bacon group. LeClair was a target with a price on his head. Vallee was at the Thunderbird Centre intending to kill the LeClair target and he achieved his goal.”
LeClair’s father sobbed when Dillon pronounced the guilty verdict. The small, high-security Vancouver courtroom was packed with police and prosecutors who had worked on the case.
The daylight murder at a busy mall was part of a bloody turf war between the UN and the Red Scorpions that escalated after UN member Duane Meyer was shot to death in Abbotsford on May 8, 2008.
The UN hunted their enemies across the region, watching their hangouts, recording licence plates and circulating their photos.
Dillon noted that the four key Crown witnesses, known as A, B, C and D due to a publication ban, were all former UN members and “unsavoury” characters.
But she said some of their testimony was corroborated by video surveillance, intercepted conversations, and other evidence gathered by police during the massive investigation.
In convicting Vallee of murder, Dillon said she relied specifically on the evidence of witnesses B and C, who testified about being with the hitman the day LeClair was shot.
A handgun and an AR-15 were left at the scene “along with a black duffle bag from which the machine gunman had removed the AR-15,” Dillon said.
She said witnesses to the shooting, as well as a mall surveillance video and the Tim Hortons video “establish a consistency between the appearance of the machine gunman and Cory Vallee.”
Dillon said “the murder of LeClair was a contract killing.”
“While it was not established that Vallee did receive money for the killing of LeClair, it was intended that he would receive payment.”
A key witness and other evidence in the case proved that Vallee was also part of the plot to kill the Bacons from Jan. 1, 2008 to Feb. 8, 2009, Dillon said.
Vallee received an automatic life sentence with no hope of parole 25 years for the firstdegree murder conviction.
Vallee is to be sentenced on the conspiracy conviction on June 28.