Man accused in patio hit not in town, court hears

Texts are filled with bravado but no intent, defence argues

Accused hitman Dean Wiwchar clearly didn’t want to carry out a contract killing in broad daylight on a crowded College Street patio five years ago, his lawyer argued at his murder trial.

The B.C. resident’s text messages in the weeks leading up to the execution-style slaying of John Raposo, 35, were filled with plenty of bravado about murder but no actual intent, his lawyer Adam Boni told a courtroom packed with family members of the accused and victims Thursday.

Wiwchar, 31, faces a first-degree murder charge, along with coaccused Nicola Nero, 40, Martino Caputo, 43, and Rabih (Bobby) Alkhalil, 29. Boni’s comments came during his closing remarks to the jury before Justice Robert Clark at the University Ave. courthouse.

The Crown has argued that Raposo was shot four times at close range on June 18, 2012, while watching a televised soccer game at the Sicilian Sidewalk Café, as part of plot to steal 200 kilograms of cocaine from him.

The Crown has also said Raposo was killed amid allegations that he was a police informant.

Boni acknowledged that the text messages make plenty of references to crime, but said they fail to connect his client to the murder. “There’s bravado,” he said. “There’s braggadocio. You see it all over their messages . . . there’s a lot of testosterone.”

But, he said, the texts the Crown has tendered fail to give any context to conversations or implicate his client in the murder. “I say that the cornerstone of the Crown’s case, in this case, is like quicksand. When you text message, communication isn’t guaranteed, true communication.”

Defence says accused couldn’t just bluntly tell gang leader he didn’t want to kill Raposo at the café

Court has heard that Wiwchar was known in the text messages as “Wrath of Titan,” “Man V Food” and “Zeld” but Boni alleged the killing was carried out by someone else — code-named “Dream Catcher.”

Wiwchar was acutely aware that he was under police surveillance in Vancouver and Toronto in the weeks before the murder, and was advised by a friend to lay off and let the heat pass.

Boni pointed to a May 28, 2012, text from Wiwchar, in which he said that killing Raposo on College St. would be extremely high risk, in light of police surveillance. “College St. is heaty,” Wiwchar texted.

On May 30, someone called “Birdman” texted “TNT,” who appeared to be a leader of the criminal group and referred to Wiwchar by his code name of “Zeld.”

“Well, job cancelled now,” Birdman texts TNT.

At this point, Boni said, “Wiwchar has skipped town, cut bait and never returned to Toronto.”

Bond said Wiwchar couldn’t just bluntly tell TNT he didn’t want to kill Raposo at the café.

“What happens if you say ‘no’?” Boni asked.

“You lose your street cred. You lose everything — and that’s on a good day.”

Lawyers for Alkhalil and Caputo also addressed the jury Thursday, arguing the texts and emails that make up most of the Crown’s case cannot be relied on because of technical glitches and the possibility of deleted or unrecovered messages.

Alkhalil’s lawyer Sol Friedman told the jury the messages clearly suggest there are multiple users of accounts, including “TNT,” which the Crown claims is used solely by Alkhalil.

“(The Crown) has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt he was the actual person writing the messages,” Friedman said.

He accused the police of “tunnel vision” for failing to look into the possibility there were multiple users of the accounts.

He also suggested it would make no sense for Alkhalil to brazenly rent a car under his own name knowing it would be used in a murder. The more logical conclusion is that Alkhalil was a “runner or buffer” with no knowledge of any murder plot, he argued.

“He can’t be both a sophisticated, security-savvy, high-level drug dealer and a bumbling fool, a disposable errand boy,” Friedman argued.

The trial resumes Monday. With files from Alyshah Hasham