SURREY SIX: A TIMELINE
Early Oct., 2007: Drug trafficker Corey Lal is roughed up by rivals from the Red Scorpion gang and told to pay a $100,000 “tax” for selling cocaine & other drugs in their territory.
Oct. 18, 2007: Corey Lal, Eddie Narong and other associates forcibly take over a Surrey drug line run by Lal’s former partner Stephen Leone.
Oct. 19, 2007:
Eddie Narong, Corey Lal, his brother Michael Lal, associate Ryan Bartolomeo and bystanders Ed Schellenberg and Chris Mohan are shot to death, executionstyle, inside suite 1505 of Surrey’s Balmoral Tower.
Oct. 22, 2007:
Police seized a BMW linked to accused Surrey Six killer Cody Haevischer at a Burnaby car detailing business where it had been dropped off. Oct. 23, 2007: Homicide investigators search a suite at The Stanley apartments in Surrey, where Cody Haevischer was living with his girlfriend before the Surrey Six murders.
March 12, 2008: The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team asks for public help in identifying a man with “significant” information about the murders, saying police would protect the man from the killers.
May 31, 2008:
The Vancouver Sun reveals for the first time that the Surrey Six suspects are linked to the Red Scorpion gang.
May 31, 2008:
Police warn that anyone associating with the Red Scorpion Bacon brothers could be in danger because they have been targeted by rivals. Jamie and Jarrod Bacon are
arrested on firearms charges.
Jan. 20, 2009:
Jamie Bacon is shot at as he drives his car through a busy Abbotsford intersection in midday. He is uninjured, but police later say the United Nations gang was hunting him at the time.
Feb. 3, 2009:
Raphael Baldini, a close friend of Corey Lal’s who once rented suite 1505 in the Balmoral, is gunned down in a Surrey mall parking lot.
April 3, 2009:
Person X enters a surprise guilty plea to 2nd-degree murder charges for shooting to death Chris Mohan, Michael Lal and Ryan Bartolomeo in Surrey’s Balmoral Tower 18 months earlier.
April 3, 2009:
Red Scorpions Cody Haevischer, Matt Johnston and Jamie Bacon
are charged with 1st-degree murder and conspiracy in the slayings.
June 17, 2009: Red Scorpion gang founder Michael Le is arrested in the Philippines and deported to Canada, where he is charged with murder and conspiracy in the killings.
Nov. 23, 2009: Sophon Sek is charged with manslaughter for allegedly helping the Surrey Six killers get access to the Balmoral Tower suite.
April 13, 2010:
A Red Scorpion who can only be identified as Person Y pleads guilty to two unrelated murders and reveals he will be a Crown witness in the Surrey Six case.
Aug. 2, 2012:
The Crown announces that Jamie Bacon will get a separate trial from his co-
accused Cody Haevischer, Matt Johnston and Michael Le.
Sept. 30, 2013: The Surrey Six trial begins for Haevischer, Johnston and Le under tight security at Vancouver Law Courts.
Nov. 28, 2013: Red Scorpion founder Michael Le enters a surprise mid-trial guilty plea to conspiracy to commit murder and agrees to testify against his former co-accused.
March 10, 2014: Key Crown witness Person Y takes the stand and describes his life as a gangster and killer. He later implicates Matt Johnston in the Surrey Six murders.
April 8, 2014:
Red Scorpion founder Michael Le begins his sensational testimony at the trial, saying both Cody Haevischer and Matt Johnston confessed to
having roles in the murders.
May 20, 2014: Lead prosecutor Mark Levitz closes the Crown’s case after 73 witnesses and 80 days of testimony.
June 9, 2014:
Defence lawyers Simon Buck (Haevischer) and Michael Tammen (Johnston) tell Judge Catherine Wedge they will not be calling witnesses on behalf of their clients.
July 7, 2014:
Cody Haevischer’s defence team begins its closing arguments, calling the Crown’s evidence in the case “woefully inadequate.”
July 10, 2014:
Matt Johnston’s lawyers begin closing arguments, saying key witnesses testifying about the murder plot are admitted violent gangsters and should not be believed.