Court told of inner workings of deadly Dhak Group at Bacon murder trial

KELOWNA — Two of the three men accused of killing gangster Jonathan Bacon had beads associating them with the gang leader who allegedly ordered the hit on the gangsters with Bacon at the time of the shooting, a Kelowna court heard Wednesday.

Jason McBride, Jujhar KhunKhun and Michael Jones are on trial for the murder of Bacon and the attempted murder of Hells Angel Larry Amero and two women who were also in a Porsche Cayenne that was shot up the afternoon of Aug. 14, 2011, outside the Delta Grand hotel in downtown Kelowna.

James Riach was also in the car, but he escaped unhurt.

Sukh Dhak, who was killed in 2012, was accused of ordering the hit on Amero and Riach, whom he blamed for the killing of his brother, Gurmit Dhak, in 2010.

A former member of Sukh’s gang is a witness in this trial but cannot be named because of a publication ban.

Members of the Dhak Group had sets of beads, given to them by either Gurmit or Sukh, said the witness.

“It was mainly Gurm’s crew that had them,” he said. “Jay (McBride) had a set. Sukh had a set. When Gurm was alive, the only guy in our little crew that had beads was Sukh. After Gurm died, Sukh started giving them to his crew, which was us, and not everybody, just certain guys.”

The witness described the beads as white gold balls with Chinese writing on them and said sets of beads cost about $5,000 to $6,000.

“Most of the guys had them way before me, then me and Manny (Hairan) wanted them and Sukh knew we wanted them, so he used that (and) he made us work harder for them, I guess you could say,” said the witness.

Sukh also gave a set of the beads to Khun-Khun, said the witness.

The witness described going to help McBride a week before the shooting, when McBride’s green Ford Explorer broke down in Kelowna.

When he arrived, the witness said, three people were there, including McBride, whom he referred to as Jay, a woman and another man he described as being darker skinned.

“I’d seen him with Jay before,” said the witness, adding the man was wearing beads, indicating he was “part of our crew.”

The witness said he saw McBride with a gun.

“The door was open and (McBride) was leaning forward … I don’t know what he was doing, I just remember him leaning over and I could just see a gun in his pants underneath his shirt,” he said.

Sometime after Gurmit Dhak’s death, he, Khun-Khun and Hairan were at Hairan’s house looking at photographs, the witness said.

“We were looking at a bunch of pictures out on Manny’s counter of Larry (Amero) and some other guys,” he said. “Manny was wearing a pair of gloves as he was flipping through them.”

Wednesday’s testimony was part of a voir dire, used to determine the admissibility of evidence of discreditable conduct of one of more of the accused. Justice Allan Betton will rule on its admissibility at a later date. The trial continues.