GANGSTER SHOT DEAD
Had criminal history in B.C.
Former B.C. gangster Cody Sleigh was working in construction in Winnipeg when he was fatally shot outside a halfway house there last month.
The murder came 2½ years after his one-time co-accused, Troy Dax McKinnon, was shot to death in a Nanaimo parking lot. McKinnon had been released from prison months earlier.
The slayings of both men remain unsolved.
Sleigh was gunned down about 5:45 a.m. on July 21 outside the Osborne Community Correctional Centre in downtown Winnipeg. He succumbed to his injuries two days later.
Winnipeg police Const. Rob Carver said Friday that investigators there are well-aware of Sleigh’s history in B.C. He wouldn’t say whether police believe the murder is linked to Sleigh’s criminal past in this province.
“We would certainly look at that. Investigators are certainly well aware of his background,” Carver said Friday. “Arrests haven’t been made yet. But it would definitely show up on our detectives’ radar in terms of trying to piece together what exactly happened that day.”
B.C.’s anti-gang Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, or CFSEU, which investigated the kidnapping for which Sleigh, McKinnon and several associates were convicted, is ready to help in the case any way it can, Sgt. Brenda Winpenny said Friday.
“CFSEU will offer any support that can assist in the advancement of the investigation,” she said.
Sleigh had been serving a sixyear, two month sentence after pleading guilty in May 2015 to his role in the gunpoint kidnapping orchestrated by the Independent Soldiers gang in Vancouver in November 2011.
He was also convicted that same month of an August 2011 home invasion during which he waved a gun equipped with a silencer at the terrified victims. His co-accused in the North Delta home invasion, Yonatan (JK) Kassa, was shot to death in Port Coquitlam in January 2016.
When Sleigh’s statutory release was coming up this spring, the Parole Board of Canada ordered him to live in a halfway house because of his propensity for violence.
“Recent file information assessed you as a high risk to reoffend generally or violently, and identified you as being an untreated violent offender,” the March parole board decision by Lori Johnstone-Clarke said. “You appear to be entrenched in your criminal associations and to value your identity as a gang member or associate. Your affiliation with organized crime groups is likely to increase the risk of harm to yourself, others and the public while incarcerated or on any type of release.”
She also ordered him to stay away from other criminals and not to consume illicit drugs or drink alcohol.
And she noted that he was both gang-linked and extremely violent inside prison, forcing him both to be moved to other institutions and to get put in segregation at various points of his sentence.
He was also convicted of a brutal prison assault described by Johnstone-Clarke.
“The assault was captured on video surveillance. After the victim lost consciousness, you were observed to be standing over him, then stomped/back-kicked the victim in the face. The assault continued after the victim regained consciousness, and you continued to punch and kick the victim until another inmate patted you on the arm,” she wrote. “A razor blade weapon was found at the scene. The victim sustained several injuries including swelling, bruising, and lacerations to the face and head, and a possible orbital floor fracture.”
B.C. court records indicate the 2017 assault took place in Agassiz, while Sleigh was in the Kent Institution.
A Postmedia News probe two years ago linked several Lower Mainland murders to prison conflicts involving McKinnon, Sleigh and others who had at one time been aligned with the Wolf Pack gang before it splintered. Sleigh’s faction then aligned with the Brothers Keepers gang.
Despite the parole board’s bleak assessment of Sleigh’s future, his aunt posted on Facebook that he had been turning his life around and had got a job in construction at the time he was killed. She included his photo with a hard hat and a work vest.
She also said his family donated his organs to three people after he died.
Winpenny said his fate is sadly a common one.
“This is yet another example of an individual with a deeply entrenched past affiliated with gangs and gang violence becoming a victim,” she said. “This lifestyle is dangerous and so many times the unfortunate outcome is the result of deadly acts of violence, leaving family and friends behind grieved at the loss of their loved one.”