Honorio pleads guilty in Bolsa restaurant shooting
403 Soldiers member avoids retrial for notorious 2009 triple- homicide
A Calgary man has admitted to killing a bystander who fled the Bolsa Restaurant on Macleod Trail South during a daytime gang- related triple homicide on New Year’s Day 2009.
Real Christian Honorio, 32, a member of the 403 Soldiers gang pleaded guilty through his lawyer Tonii Roulston on Monday morning to second- degree murder in the death of 43- year- old Keni Su’a.
The plea removes Honorio from a retrial with two FOB gang members in January on three counts of firstdegree murder.
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice William Tilleman ordered the agreed statement of facts in Honorio’s case sealed until sentencing, likely early next year, as there are other accused still awaiting trial and lawyers claim it would affect their cases.
The plea deal had been worked out between Crown prosecutors Steve Johnston and Adam May and Honorio’s lawyers Roulston and Andrea Urquhart.
Roulston said outside court it was a very favourable outcome for her client.
“It’s something we’ve been working on for the past few months,” Roulston told reporters. “We will have two counts of first- degree murder with respect to the other victims withdrawn and first- degree murder of Keni Su’a withdrawn as well. He is relieved to finally move on. This occurred in 2009. He had a long, arduous trial, for which we were successful at appeal. Now, we were back to trial again. He just wants to move on with his life and actually have a life.”
In previous hearings, court heard Su’a was mistaken for FOB Killers ( FK) gang member Sanjeev Mann as he ran out of Bolsa that afternoon. Mann was apparently targeted for retribution for his alleged slaying of FOB member Roger Chin.
With Honorio’s plea, gangsters have now taken responsibility for all three of the victims of the Jan. 1, 2009, slaughter.
Honorio faces a life sentence without parole for between 10 and 25 years for killing Su’a, but Roulston would not say what she is seeking.
Michael Roberto, 30, a former FOB member, last year cut a deal with the Crown and admitted to killing FK member Mann, 23. He was given a 16- year sentence for being part of a criminal organization involving the murder of Mann and immunity from further prosecution in exchange for testifying against the others.
Nathan Zuccherato, 28, an FOB gang member facing six counts of first- degree murder — including all three victims at Bolsa — pleaded guilty to the first- degree murder of FK associate Aaron Bendle, 21. He also pleaded guilty to first- and seconddegree murder in two separate gang slayings.
Zuccherato and Roberto had each been convicted of three counts of first- degree murder in their first trial and were awarded new trials on appeal.
In a separate trial, Honorio was convicted of first- degree murder of both Mann and Bendle and seconddegree murder of Su’a. He was also given a new trial on appeal. All had previously been sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 25 years.
The Alberta Court of Appeal ordered a new trial for Honorio after prosecutor Josh Hawkes advised that he had consented to the defence request to overturn all of his murder convictions because key evidence was not disclosed.
Prior to Honorio’s trial, a man identified only as M. M., confessed to RCMP in Saskatchewan that he was the shooter. This information was not passed on to the Crown’s office until after his trial, but before sentencing. M. M. had been given immunity from prosecution for his evidence.
Honorio’s case will be back in court on Dec. 11 to set a date for sentencing.
Dustin Darby, who is also charged in relation to the Bolsa massacre, will be back in court on Thursday, likely to resolve his matters, lawyer Karen Molle told court.
Richard Cairns, lawyer for Nicholas Chan, still scheduled for trial, is attempting to have the trial moved out of Calgary because he feels there’s been too much publicity to find an unbiased jury.