Man accused of killing gang leader is free
Prosecutors stay second-degree murder charge against Jimi Sandhu
An Abbotsford man who was charged with killing Red Scorpion gang leader Matt Campbell in January 2014 is free.
A second-degree murder charge laid a year ago against Jimi Sandhu was stayed by Crown prosecutors on Jan. 29, according to the online completed court lists.
Neither the Crown nor the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team released any information about the stay or the reason behind it.
Charges that are stayed can be reinstated if there is new evidence in the investigation.
Sandhu, 25, was accused of stabbing Campbell in the neck after a chance encounter at the Abbotsford Auto Mall on Jan. 2, 2014.
Campbell, 32, entered a rental car business to seek help, but died from his injuries.
Sandhu was known to police before the Campbell murder.
He had been convicted of two counts of assault with a weapon — one in Vancouver and one in Abbotsford in May 2012 — and got a day in jail and credit for 31 days served. He was acquitted of trafficking in Abbotsford in 2009, but has other convictions for theft under $5,000 and breach of probation.
In 2011, he and several others were charged in a kidnapping, but the charges were stayed days later.
Campbell is believed to have taken over the leadership of the Red Scorpion gang after the arrest or murders of several key gang members in recent years, including brothers Jonathan, Jarrod and Jamie Bacon.
Campbell was convicted of conspiring to traffic firearms in 2007 and received a two-year sentence.
During the investigation, more than 100 guns were seized, including military assault rifles, submachine-guns and fully automatic handguns.
Campbell, who grew up in Abbotsford, was extremely close to the Bacon brothers.
He travelled with other Red Scorpion gangsters and their girlfriends to Mexico in December 2007, just weeks after the Surrey Six slayings. Also on the trip were Jamie Bacon, Cody Haevischer, and a man who can be identified only as Person X due to a court-ordered ban, all of whom were later charged in the high-profile murder case.
Person X has since pleaded guilty. Haevischer was found guilty last October and is serving a life sentence.
And Jamie Bacon will go to trial in May.