Gangster gets seven years for ‘sophisticated’ kidnap scheme
Long-time gangster Troy Dax McKinnon was sentenced to seven years Tuesday after pleading guilty to playing a “significant leadership role” in a 2011 Vancouver kidnapping thwarted by police.
B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Austin Cullen called the plan to kidnap drug trafficker Eric Low “a co-ordinated, sophisticated scheme involving communication by encrypted cellphone and the use of computers and tracking devices.”
Cullen said McKinnon and his pals had expected a big ransom to be paid for Low.
“The motivation for the crime was entirely profit-driven,” he said.
He accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence lawyers that gives McKinnon almost four years credit for pre-trial custody, meaning he has another three years and four months to serve.
Cullen noted that McKinnon, 31, was directing his associates about when and how to place the tracking devices on Low’s vehicles and where to grab their target.
“The offender was aware that the kidnap plan involved acquisition of a firearm and ammunition,” Cullen said. “He was aware of the probability that bodily harm would be caused to the victim when he was kidnapped.”
Gang cops were watching as McKinnon’s associates grabbed Low outside a Blockbusters store in east Vancouver on Nov. 23. 2011, pistol-whipping him and throwing him into a van.
When police caught up to the kidnappers minutes later, they found Low tied up with zap straps and covered in blood.
McKinnon stood and addressed the court before learning his fate. “I wish to apologize for my actions and any harm that I caused Mr. Low and his family or the public in general and anything worse that could have transpired by my actions,” McKinnon said.
His guilty plea to conspiracy and kidnapping came more than a year after his trial began at the Vancouver Law Courts.
Last month, co-accused Derek James Stephens, 31, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years minus time served.
The trial for three other accused is set to resume in April.
Also named on the indictment is Independent Soldier Jesse Margison, who was found unfit to stand trial after he suffered brain damage in a jailhouse beating.
The gang task force had been watching Margison when officers learned of the kidnapping plot.
As the gangsters tracked Low, police were tracking them.
Crown prosecutor Mark Sheardown said an aggravating factor in the case is the “brazen nature of the kidnapping.”
“It occurred in a public place in the middle of the day when other citizens would be expected to be present, putting a significant risk to public safety,” he said.
“Clearly there is a high degree of planning and premeditation involved in this kidnapping and Mr. McKinnon occupied a central role with respect to that.”
He said McKinnon has had no break in his criminal history over the last 16 years, noting he had even been convicted of assaulting a fellow prisoner.
“This illustrates Mr. McKinnon poses a danger whether he is in custody or out of custody,” Sheardown said.
Defence lawyer Darcy Lawrence said that despite McKinnon’s lengthy criminal history, he hopes to work on a business degree while in jail and turn his life around once released.
“He is an intelligent man and he does have goals and aspirations,” Lawrence said.