Gangsters face life for massacre of six people
Judge rules three gang members who turned police informants were believable despite their criminal pasts
In the end, it was those closest to the murderous Red Scorpion gang who would bring about convictions in B.C.’s worst gangland massacre — the 2007 Surrey Six slayings.
An admitted killer who was in on the Surrey Six plot for weeks before backing out. A young drug dealer who gave the killers access to the building. A gangster girlfriend who helped clean the guns used in the slaughter.
The three became key Crown witnesses against Red Scorpions Cody Haevischer and Matt Johnston, who were convicted Thursday on six counts of first-degree murder and one of conspiracy.
All three turned away from their gang and to police after the unprecedented mass murder on the penthouse floor of Surrey’s Balmoral Tower on Oct. 19, 2007 of drug dealer Corey Lal, his brother Michael, associates Ryan Bartolomeo and Eddie Narong, and bystanders Chris Mohan and Ed Schellenberg.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge explained in her 202-page ruling why she believed the testimony of the killer dubbed Person Y, the dealer identified as DY, and the girlfriend known in court as KM, despite their criminal histories.
“I am satisfied that persons Y, KM and DY intended to be truthful in their testimony before the court on the material matters going to the issue of whether the two accused committed the offences with which they are charged,” Wedge said.
Person Y turned to police just months after the slayings and told them Johnston had confessed to him within hours of the terrible crime. And he described meetings to plan a hit on Corey Lal, admitting he had been willing to kill the young rival dealer himself.
“He has committed horrific acts of violence that were explored at great length in his cross-examination, though he was candid and forthright in acknowledging his participation in them,” Wedge said. “Person Y referred to himself as a ‘monster’ and a ‘despicable human being’ several times in his testimony.”
Y also pleaded guilty to two unrelated murder.
“Person Y made no plea agreement with the Crown in return for his testimony against the accused,” she said. “With his life sentence, Person Y has taken responsibility for his criminal past.
Wedge said that despite being female, KM rose to a respected position in the Red Scorpions and helped Haevischer, then her boyfriend, with his drug lines.
“She is exceptional in that she was the only woman to achieve a significant role in the RS,” Wedge said. “KM was involved in the offences in question, agreeing at trial that she cleaned bullets and destroyed evidence, and that her vehicle was used in the murders.”
KM only cooperated with police after she was told she might spend her life in prison.
“She assessed her own position and withheld information until it was clear police had evidence implicating her in the murders and that she had little choice but to cooperate,” Wedge said.
DY, the young drug dealer who worked for the gang, lived in the Balmoral Tower and helped the killers get access to the building.
Then 19, he was hauled in by police in February 2008 and told he could face six firstdegree murder counts if he didn’t cooperate.
DY admitted he provided the access key fob to Johnston a short time before the murders.
“I accept DY’s evidence that he gave his fob to Mr. Johnston in the early afternoon of October 19. His evidence is well corroborated, particularly by the evidence concerning the use of his fob at the west pedestrian gate at 2:23 p.m., the same time that a witness observed three men in the parkade and saw one of them, matching Mr. Johnston’s description, holding open that very gate,” Wedge said.
Wedge accepted that both accused, and a third Scorpion dubbed Person X, were part of the conspiracy to kill Corey Lal that spiralled out of control and left six people dead.
Corey Lal was in Suite 1505 — the stash house where he and Narong store their drugs. His brother and Bartolomeo were there when Schellenberg arrived to service the gas fireplace.
Mohan was leaving his home across the hall and heading to a basketball game when he was dragged into 1505. Narong also arrived after the killers had confined the others in the suite.
Wedge said none of the victims posed any threat to Johnston, Haevischer or X and “were shot to death while lying defenceless on the floor.”
“The nature of the wounds suffered by the victims demonstrates that the shootings were calculated and deliberate executions, carried out after real consideration, not the random or scattered shots of a panicked shooter,” Wedge said. “The inescapable inference is that the five other persons in the room were killed because they could identify the killers of Mr. Lal.”
She rejected defence arguments that there had never been a plan to kill Lal, but only to rob him after he refused to pay the Red Scorpions a $100,000 tax.
“In light of the crime scene evidence, it is implausible to suggest that the trio went to Suite 1505 for the limited purpose of robbing Mr. Lal,” Wedge said. “Had that been the plan, they could simply have abandoned it when they discovered others in the apartment with Mr. Lal. Instead, they executed six people.”
The high-security courtroom in downtown Vancouver was packed for the verdict — there were rows of victims’ families and friends. Relatives of the killers sat in the front row behind the prisoners’ dock. Police officers who had worked on the murder case for years lined up to get seats.
Wedge read a summary of her longer ruling to a hushed courtroom. But every time she announced a guilty verdict on one of the counts, family members applauded loudly.
The only relative to give a media statement outside court was Mohan’s mother Eileen.
“Today is a great day for Christopher. I have been waiting for seven years for this day and it has come and I am relieved. And I know that my son is smiling down today and it’s a good feeling,” said Mohan, beaming to reporters on the steps of the Vancouver Law Courts.
Lead Crown Mark Levitz thanked the victims’ families and acknowledged their great suffering.
“Seven years ago, six people were executed … in Surrey,” he said. “They left mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, a wife and children who have had to suffer all these years. I hope the verdict today gives them some comfort and that they feel a sense of justice.”
Haevischer and Johnston face an automatic life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years.
But they have already filed an abuse of process motion, meaning their lawyers will argue that their Charter rights were violated during the police investigation and that the case against them should be thrown out. No date has been set yet to hear that application.