Psychologist didn't ask convicted biker about Hells Angels links, court hears
A forensic psychologist who assessed Hells Angel Larry Amero for his sentencing on two murder conspiracy convictions said Monday that he didn't ask Amero for any details of the notorious biker gang.
Dylan Gatner testified in B.C. Supreme Court that he didn't think Amero would be forthcoming, so he didn't push for information about his role in the Hells Angel's West Point chapter. Crown prosecutor Damienne Darby grilled Gatner about his report, which concluded Amero was a moderate to high risk of violence once released, depending on whether or not he cut his criminal associations as he claimed he wanted to do.
Darby asked why Gatner only referred to the Hells Angels as a generic motorcycle club in the report.
“Did you ever ask Mr. Amero, which motorcycle club?” she asked as Amero listened from the prisoner's box on Day 6 of the 15-day sentencing hearing.
Replied Gatner: “I asked Mr. Amero about his relationships that were anti-social and he was relatively avoidant to discuss the matters.”
He said he moved on to other questions in his March interview with Amero as he already “had filebased information to rely upon in my report.”
“We did not discuss it in any in any great detail,” Gatner said. “He made a general statement that was `motorcycle groups are both good and bad' and didn't really have much more say about that.” In August, Amero, who's part of the Wolfpack gang alliance, was convicted of conspiracy to murder rivals Sukhveer (Sukh) Dhak and Sandip (Dip) Duhre in 2012. Both were gunned down months apart that year.
Amero's co-accused Rabih (Robby) Alkhalil was convicted of both conspiracy and first-degree murder in Duhre's death. And he was found guilty of plotting to murder Dhak. But he escaped from jail in July and remains a fugitive.
Gatner said that Amero's mother Carol first contacted him in March to assess her 45-year-old son, but he told her to get Amero's lawyer Marc-Antoine Rock to call him.
Darby asked the psychologist if he was “aware that the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club has been found by several courts in Canada to be a criminal organization.”
He said he was “generally aware of that and I believe it was also commented upon in the materials that you sent us.”
The Crown also asked Gatner if he agreed that not all motorcycle clubs had the same potential for violence. “You would agree with me that there's a difference between being a full member of the local Vespa club and a transnational criminal organization?” Darby said. “Absolutely,” Gatner replied.
Darby has suggested to Justice Miriam Maisonville that Gatner took much of what Amero said at face value when there was conflicting information available to him.
She noted that Gatner said Amero's behaviour while in custody had been good, though a bail ruling in of Quebec noted he had breached rules while in custody there several times.
Amero also told Gatner that he had a good relationship with his immediate family, even though Amero did not want the psychologist to interview any family members other than his mother Carol.
Darby suggested that jail logs showed his mother visited him at the North Fraser pretrial jail regularly, but that his father and sister had not been to see him there in a long time.
“I'm going to suggest that what the (Corrections) logs actually show is documented visits with his mother — many of them — no recent visits with the father, no visits with his sister — or any communication — and no recent visits with the mother of his son,” Darby said.
She also said jail logs showed Amero regularly chatted and interacted with other gangsters, despite claiming to Gatner he never talked to people at North Fraser.
And Amero's mail logs showed he had regular correspondence with Red Scorpion Jamie Bacon, convicted of conspiracy in the Surrey Six murders, as well as Surrey Six killers Cody Haevischer and Matt Johnston, Darby noted.