Hollywood stuntman found dead on eve of sentencing in drug case
An Ontario-based stuntman who worked on several Hollywood movies died just before sentencing arguments were set to begin Wednesday at the Montreal courthouse in a case in which he was recently convicted of conspiring to smuggle drugs into Canada.
Defence lawyer Catherine Ranalli made the surprise announcement regarding Dean Copkov, 52, on Wednesday morning. According to his IMDB profile, Copkov, a resident of Wasaga Beach, Ont., worked as a stuntman on popular Hollywood movies like The Incredible Hulk, Pacific Rim, Pompeii, and the 2014 reboot of RoboCop. He was not shy to let it be known he was a stuntman while he was on trial in Montreal last year. He wore a T-shirt advertising a company that hired out stuntmen and stuntwomen during at least one date in the trial in which he was convicted, by a jury on Nov. 12, on two charges of conspiring to smuggle large quantities of drugs into Canada.
“We were just advised by a close friend. Mr. Copkov was either killed or died (Tuesday),” Ranalli told Superior Court Justice Jean-François Buffoni as he was preparing to hear sentencing arguments in a case that involved Copkov and three other men.
Sources familiar with the investigation said Copkov, who was out on bail, was one of two people found dead in Collingwood, Ont., early Tuesday. According to a report on the deaths, published by the news site simcoe.com, the Ontario Provincial Police did not provide information on how the two people died.
According to several media reports, residents in the area heard loud bangs sometime after 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday and noticed the body of one of the deceased lying in a snowbank after sunrise the same day.
A spokesperson for the OPP told the Montreal Gazette on Wednesday that the police force would not confirm the identities of the two people.
Cameron Gardiner, 57, of Collingwood, has been arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree murder, the OPP said.
Buffoni reacted to news of Copkov’s death with the word “Wow” but allowed sentencing arguments to proceed against three other men convicted in the same case.
Prosecutor Carly Norris asked that Louis Nagy, 59 of Beaconsfield, and Robert Bryant, 69, of Roslin Ont., be sentenced to five-year prison terms for their roles in conspiracies to bring large quantities of cocaine and hashish into Canada. Norris also asked that Marco Milan, 53, of Caledon, Ont., be sentenced to a three-year prison term.
Defence lawyer Pierre L’Écuyer countered that Nagy and Milan should be sentenced to prison terms of four and two years respectively. Bryant’s lawyer, Philippe Legault noted his client’s age and poor health while requesting a 30-month sentence for his client.
All four men were charged as a result of an RCMP investigation dubbed Project Célibataire which focused on plots to smuggle cocaine and cannabis resin (or hashish) into the country between 2011 and 2012. Bryant acted as a middleman between drug suppliers in the Netherlands and Nagy. One witness in the investigation told the RCMP that, at one point early in the conspiracies, Bryant talked about bringing in as much as 6,000 kilograms of hashish.
Buffoni will deliver his decision on the sentences on Feb. 4.