Mystery witness at gang trial denies trying to frame accused

A former United Nations gangster said Wednesday that a suggestion he had framed Cory Vallee for murder was “frankly preposterous.”

The man, who can only be identified as D due to a sweeping publication ban, angrily denied claims by Vallee’s lawyer Eric Gottardi that D had manipulated police just as he used to manipulate others in the gang.

D was in the eighth day of his testimony in B.C. Supreme Court at the trial of Vallee, who is charged with conspiracy to kill the Bacon brothers over several months in 2008 and 2009 and is facing one count of first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of Bacon associate Kevin LeClair in February 2009.

Gottardi pointed D to copies of encrypted emails he wrote to his UN pal Amir Eghtesad about a plan to rob a UN associate known as Duke.

In the emails, D told Eghtesad that he was going to befriend Duke to make it easier to target him for robbery.

But after one failed meeting, D wrote: “That goof he is smarter than I thought. He sent his cousin to meet me. He won’t meet me. He is scared shitless. He thinks everyone is out to whack his ass.”

Said Gottardi: “That is the guy you are targeting — somebody who is too scared to leave his apartment. Correct?”

D agreed.

“Yes you are not incorrect. That may have been my intention,” he told Justice Janice Dillon.

In other emails, D offered to help Duke with his problem with a senior UN member. And D suggested that he and Duke should do some business together.

The trial continues.