Jurors heard for the first time Monday from the man who admits he attempted to kill Dennis Karbovanec back on New Year’s Eve 2008. It was an interesting day. There are bans in place, but here’s the story I was able to write:

A former drug dealer indebted to Jamie Bacon said Tuesday that he felt “frantic” after failing to kill Dennis Karbovanec on a dead-end Mission street more than a decade ago.

The man, who can only be identified as CD, testified in B.C. Supreme Court that the “compact” Glock 45 he was given to kill Karbovanec jammed after he got a few shots off.

He said he quickly tried to fix the problem by expelling a bullet he thought was stuck in the Glock’s chamber as Karbovanec ran away.

CD is a key Crown witnesses at the trial of Bacon, who is facing one count of counselling someone to commit murder in connection to the Dec. 31, 2008 shooting.

He testified Monday that Bacon had asked him to kill Karbovanec after the former pals had a falling out related to their drug business and because Karbovanec had slept with Bacon’s girlfriend.

While CD said he had never shot anyone before, he agreed to do the hit because he owed Bacon $20,000 and was told his debt would be wiped out.

On Tuesday, he provided jurors and Justice Catherine Wedge with more details about the night of the shooting on Mission’s Bench Avenue.

He said he met AB — who also testified to his involvement in the murder plot — at a residence they called “Little House” on 7th Avenue in Mission as well as AB’s friend Edward “Sanchez” Felix. Another associate, Matt Johnston, arrived later, AB testified.

Jamie Bacon in an undated photo.

He said Bacon had earlier told CD to use a Glock 45 for the hit, which was already at Little House when he arrived that night.

“I wanted to use a 40-calibre Glock I had because I was comfortable with it and I trusted it,” CD testified. “Jamie disagreed and instructed me to use a 45-calibre Glock that he had. He wanted me to use that weapon because he said Dennis was wearing a vest and the 45-calibre Glock was more powerful.”

He said he, AB, Johnston and Felix got into a “Bronco”-like vehicle and headed to the Mission Sports Park to meet Karbovanec, who was in his own car. CD testified that he had put the Glock and a spare clip inside a paper bag with string handles.

He and AB had already told Karbovanec the fake cover story about going to rob a marijuana-growing operation, CD said.

From the sports park, they drove a short distance to the end of Bench Avenue and both cars parked. Everyone but Felix got out, CD testified, adding that he went back to the car to get the Glock.

“I walked around the front of the vehicle and when I had the three men in sight, I tried to remove the gun from the bag. I fumbled it a bit. My hand or something got snagged on one of the handles,” he said. “But I eventually came up with the gun and fired at Dennis.”

CD said he “squeezed the trigger as many times as I could before the gun jammed. It could have been three to five times.”

Karbovanec “ducked extremely fast as if he was waiting for it. And he turned and ran away.”

Related

• Would-be hitman says Bacon asked him to kill to clear drug debt
• Jamie Bacon trial witness admits crew prepared to kill second man
• Former Jamie Bacon associate gets grilled in cross-examination

CD said he took about 10 seconds to fix the jam. Then he fired again, emptying the clip, he said.

He could no longer see Karbovanec and “thought I had missed,” CD said, adding that he was “frantic.”

“What was your greatest concern immediately after the shooting?” asked prosecutor Joe Bellows.

Replied CD: “That Dennis was going to come back and kill me.”

He met with Bacon sometime in January to discuss the failed hit, CD said.

Bacon said “he wasn’t surprised that I missed Dennis because I was inexperienced and had never killed anyone before,” the witness testified.

“He suggested that I should have walked directly up to him and shot him point blank in the head to avoid hitting his vest.”

The trial continues.

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Blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

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There was lots of interesting evidence as CD continued his testimony on the witness stand at the Bacon trial Tuesday. He said he was very worried that after the failed hit, Dennis Karbovanec would find him and kill him. At the time, he was living in the same Port Moody condo building, but never returned there after Dec. 31, 2008 because “I thought Dennis would be waiting there for me to kill me.”

He said Karbovanec had a reputation for violence.

“He was what we called muscle. He was paid a salary to drive around and inflict violence on people and/or intimidate them,” CD testified. He also said Karbovanec was “absolutely” capable of killing him.

Here’s my story:

A key Crown witness at the Jamie Bacon trial admitted Wednesday that he started in the drug trade as a 16-year-old, working on others’ dial-a-dope lines before eventually starting his own.

And the man, who can only be identified as CD due to a publication ban, also agreed in cross-examination that he once belonged to a group called the “Keep It Full Crew.” They each got rings and were associated to the Haney Hells Angels, he testified.

Bacon lawyer Kimberly Eldred suggested the group, made up of five or six people involved in the drug trade, “was a drug trafficking organization.”

“The reference to ‘keep it full’ was to mean that you always had product on hand for your customers,” Eldred said.

CD disagreed.

“No, it was about guns — keeping guns full of ammunition,” he told jurors and B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge.

“Oh, so it was a violence ring?” Eldred then asked. CD replied: “You could call it that.”

CD has testified that he shot former Bacon pal Dennis Karbovanec on Dec. 31, 2008 on the orders of Bacon.

He said he agreed to do the hit because he owed Bacon a $20,000 drug debt, which he was told would be forgiven if he killed Karbovanec. But CD’s gun jammed and Karbovanec escaped with minor injuries.

Bacon is charged with one count of counselling someone to commit murder.

CD also testified that he began working for Bacon in the drug trade in late 2007 or early 2008 after he had a falling out with his Keep It Full crewmate Jason Murray.

He said Murray had been taxing him $500 at first, but that the tax increased to $5,000 after CD failed to stand up for Murray when another associate called him a “goof.”

Eldred suggested that “Mr. Murray laid a pretty serious beating on you.”

“No, he did not,” CD responded, saying Murray punched him two or three times in the head.

Eldred said again: “A biker punches you in the head three times, that’s a beating.”

Replied CD: “Maybe to you.”

Earlier Wednesday, prosecutor Joe Bellows went over RCMP payments to CD totalling tens of thousands of dollars since he agreed to be a witness in the case in 2010.

They helped him with accommodation and other bills, CD agreed.

But he also said that while he got some assistance, most of his income came from working — sometimes seven days a week.

He also said he paid himself to upgrade his education, which he considered to be of “paramount importance to me moving forward with my life.”

“I think if I stayed in school and received a proper education, I don’t think I ever would have gotten myself in this situation in the first place,” CD testified.

He also acknowledged that he signed an immunity agreement, meaning he would not be prosecuted for shooting Karbovanec if he testified truthfully.

“Have the police offered you any money in exchange for your testimony today?” Bellows asked.

Replied CD: “They have not.”

And he said he never asked them for money to testify.

The trial continues.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled that a 2015 criminal code change limiting when an accused killer can use the defence of provocation is unconstitutional.

Justice Douglas Thompson said that the amendment, part of the Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act, only allowed for the partial defence of provocation in murder cases if the victim had committed an indictable offence punishable by a sentence of five or more years.

Prior to the 2015 change, provocation was defined as “a wrongful act or an insult that is of such a nature as to be sufficient to deprive an ordinary person of self-control … if the accused acted on it on the sudden and before there was time for his passion to cool.”

Thompson said the objective of the 2015 change may have been to protect vulnerable women by ensuring that those who might attack them would not be allowed to argue provocation after the fact.

But he ruled that the “amended provisions extend to behaviour far beyond the object of the legislation. Provocation has never been confined to situations in which the victims are vulnerable women.”

Lawyer Matthew Nathanson argued in a recent murder trial that the Charter rights of his client, Michael Philip Simard, were violated by his inability to use the provocation defence, which can reduce a murder conviction to manslaughter in some instances.

Thompson accepted Nathanson’s Charter arguments about the law, while still convicting Simard of second-degree murder for the fatal shooting of his former girlfriend and her boyfriend in Courtenay in 2016.

Thompson said the provocation law should simply make a more general reference to “conduct of the victim that is of such a nature as to be sufficient to deprive an ordinary person of the power of self-control.”

Nathanson said in an interview that the ruling, released Thursday, is important because “it is the first time a Canadian court has considered the new limits on the defence of provocation brought in by the Harper government, and the court has held that they do not pass constitutional muster.”

“The court found that the purpose of the law was to protect vulnerable women. Clearly this an important and appropriate goal. However, the court also found that in certain situations the law would deny the defence of provocation to women who killed in the context of serious domestic violence,” Nathanson said. “In this way, a law designed to protect vulnerable women would deny them an important defence. This is counter-intuitive and unfair. In constitutional terms, it means the law is arbitrary, overbroad, and had to be struck down.”

The public should not be concerned that Thompson’s ruling will “open the floodgates to unwarranted provocation claims,” Nathanson said.

“Rather, it restores the law to the place where it was before 2015,” he said. “It does not absolve an offender of responsibility from their actions. Rather, it reduces murder to manslaughter based on a recognition that, because of human frailty, sometimes people can ‘snap’ in the face of serious provocation, and act before their passions have time to cool.”

Thompson said that several hypothetical scenarios advanced by Nathanson where non-criminal but offensive behaviour could provoke a violent reaction “are plausible examples of reasonably foreseeable situations.”

“Although the provoking behaviour does not constitute an indictable offence punishable by at least five years’ imprisonment, it is reasonably foreseeable that the targets of this conduct may respond violently,” he said. “These scenarios capture conduct that bears no relation to the amending law’s purpose.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

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I haven’t been in the Bacon trial since Wednesday but hope to be back Monday and Tuesday where the cross-examination of witness CD will continue. He is expected to be on the stand for several more days.

Here’s my last story:

Less than a year after B.C. skipper John ‘Phil’ Stirling was released from a U.S. prison where he served seven years for cocaine smuggling, the controversial sea captain is back behind bars.

Stirling, 65, was arrested off the Oregon coast April 9 on a sailing vessel allegedly carrying 28 seven-gallon jugs containing liquid methamphetamine.

According to U.S. court documents, Stirling deliberately overdosed on fentanyl after U.S. Coast Guard boarded his boat.

He told them he didn’t have vessel documentation and refused to produce identification.

“Upon further questioning by U.S. Coast Guard personnel, Sterling’s speech began to deteriorate until he was only able to communicate in mumbles,” the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court, states. “Stirling was displaying signs of a possible drug overdose.”

Less than a year after B.C. skipper John Stirling was released from a U.S. prison where he served seven years for cocaine smuggling, the controversial sea captain is back behind bars. Stirling, 65, was arrested off the Oregon coast April 9 on a sailing vessel allegedly carrying 28 seven-gallon jugs containing liquid methamphetamine. Photo courtesy of Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office.

Coast Guard agents administered medical aid to Stirling and evacuated him by helicopter to Astoria, Oregon. He was later transported by ambulance to Adventist Health Portland for additional treatment.”

The criminal complaint, signed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent Todd Clements, says Stirling was overheard telling a nurse at the first hospital that he had taken a “large amount” of fentanyl that was “pure.”

“Stirling also told the nurse that he did it because he realized the coast guard was about to board him because he was smuggling,” the complaint says. “He also stated that he wasn’t trying to kill himself by taking the fentanyl, but that the amount he took was from a ‘kilo.’”

At the second hospital, Stirling was telling a nurse that he had been “busted.”

“When the nurse asked what he had been doing, Stirling stated that he was a drug smuggler. Stirling stated that he did not want to go to jail for the rest of his life and that he had a ton of meth and 10 loads of fentanyl that he was taking to Canada.”

Stirling is facing one count of possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine.

The sailboat he was aboard, the Mandalay, is registered in Seattle. U.S. officials said it was spotted during a routine coast guard patrol, travelling north 225 nautical miles from Newport, Oregon.

Stirling has already made his first court appearance in Portland and was ordered remanded in custody until his trial.

He was only released from a U.S. prison on April 27, 2018 after serving most of a seven and a half year sentence handed to him by a Florida judge in 2013.

Two years before, he was arrested off the coast of Colombia on another vessel with 381 kilograms of cocaine bound for Australia.

Stirling is well-known to the RCMP in B.C. Back in 2001, his boat, the Western Wind, was stopped by American authorities in the Strait of Juan de Fuca with 2.5 tonnes of cocaine aboard, estimated to be worth $300 million at the time. The cocaine was stamped “Colombia” and wrapped in sugar sacks.

Because the boat was bound for B.C., the Americans handed Stirling and four others over to Canadian authorities. But Stirling and the others were never charged.

Then in May 2006, Stirling and four others were arrested again off Vancouver Island after police found $6.5-million worth of marijuana on board a 47-metre fishing vessel registered to Stirling. The men were all charged with drug-related offences, but the charges were all later stayed.

Stirling pleaded guilty in 1990 to several cocaine-conspiracy-related charges and was sentenced to five years in prison.

In 2002, Stirling told the Province newspaper that he was approached in the late ’90s by a prison acquaintance to skipper a boat from Colombia full of cocaine for the Hells Angels. Police had watched the meeting and asked Stirling to become an informant in the deal, he claimed. Stirling said the Hells Angels paid half for the Western Wind, which he bought to transport the massive coke shipment. He said police then double-crossed him, backing away from the arrangement and leaving him in the clutches of the bikers.

kbolan@postmedia.com

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I haven’t written about John “Phil” Stirling since 2013 when he was convicted in Florida of cocaine smuggling and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. Now he has been arrested again after allegedly continuing to smuggling drugs into Canada again.

Here’s my story:

Notorious B.C. drug smuggler arrested again

John “Phil” Stirling in a 2000 file photo

Less than a year after B.C. skipper John ‘Phil’ Stirling was released from a U.S. prison where he served seven years for cocaine smuggling, the controversial sea captain is back behind bars.

Stirling, 65, was arrested off the Oregon coast April 9 on a sailing vessel allegedly carrying 28 seven-gallon jugs containing liquid methamphetamine.

According to U.S. court documents, Stirling deliberately overdosed on fentanyl after U.S. Coast Guard boarded his boat.

He told them he didn’t have vessel documentation and refused to produce identification.

“Upon further questioning by U.S. Coast Guard personnel, Sterling’s speech began to deteriorate until he was only able to communicate in mumbles,” the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court, states. “Stirling was displaying signs of a possible drug overdose.”

Coast Guard agents administered medical aid to Stirling and evacuated him by helicopter to Astoria, Oregon. He was later transported by ambulance to Adventist Health Portland for additional treatment.”

The criminal complaint, signed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent Todd Clements, says Stirling was overheard telling a nurse at the first hospital that he had taken a “large amount” of fentanyl that was “pure.”

“Stirling also told the nurse that he did it because he realized the coast guard was about to board him because he was smuggling,” the complaint says. “He also stated that he wasn’t trying to kill himself by taking the fentanyl, but that the amount he took was from a ‘kilo.’”

At the second hospital, Stirling was telling a nurse that he had been “busted.”

“When the nurse asked what he had been doing, Stirling stated that he was a drug smuggler. Stirling stated that he did not want to go to jail for the rest of his life and that he had a ton of meth and 10 loads of fentanyl that he was taking to Canada.”

Stirling is facing one count of possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine.

The sailboat he was aboard, the Mandalay, is registered in Seattle. U.S. officials said it was spotted during a routine coast guard patrol, travelling north 225 nautical miles from Newport, Oregon.

Stirling has already made his first court appearance in Portland and was ordered remanded in custody until his trial.

He was only released from a U.S. prison on April 27, 2018 after serving most of a seven and a half year sentence handed to him by a Florida judge in 2013.

Two years before, he was arrested off the coast of Colombia on another vessel with 381 kilograms of cocaine bound for Australia.

Stirling is well-known to the RCMP in B.C. Back in 2001, his boat, the Western Wind, was stopped by American authorities in the Strait of Juan de Fuca with 2.5 tonnes of cocaine aboard, estimated to be worth $300 million at the time. The cocaine was stamped “Colombia” and wrapped in sugar sacks.

Because the boat was bound for B.C., the Americans handed Stirling and four others over to Canadian authorities. But Stirling and the others were never charged.

Then in May 2006, Stirling and four others were arrested again off Vancouver Island after police found $6.5-million worth of marijuana on board a 47-metre fishing vessel registered to Stirling. The men were all charged with drug-related offences, but the charges were all later stayed.

Stirling pleaded guilty in 1990 to several cocaine-conspiracy-related charges and was sentenced to five years in prison.

In 2002, Stirling told the Province newspaper that he was approached in the late ’90s by a prison acquaintance to skipper a boat from Colombia full of cocaine for the Hells Angels. Police had watched the meeting and asked Stirling to become an informant in the deal, he claimed. Stirling said the Hells Angels paid half for the Western Wind, which he bought to transport the massive coke shipment. He said police then double-crossed him, backing away from the arrangement and leaving him in the clutches of the bikers.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

A lawyer for Jamie Bacon grilled the key Crown witness against him Monday over lapses in the man’s memory from a 2010 interview that he gave to police.

The man, who can only be identified as CD, testified last week that he never spoke to a lawyer before the 2010  interview, conducted after he turned himself in for the New Year’s Eve shooting of Dennis Karbovanec 18 months earlier.

The Bacon trial has already heard that police had spoken to CD several times before he was told in June 2010 to surrender or be arrested in connection with the Karbovanec shooting.

Bacon is on trial for counselling someone to commit murder for the failed attempt on the life of his former associate, who survived the shooting on a dead-end Mission road.

CD told jurors and B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge that Bacon asked him to kill Karbovanec in order to get his hefty drug debt forgiven.

But he said the Glock handgun he was using jammed after the first few rounds, allowing Karbovanec to escape.

Bacon lawyer Kim Eldred noted Monday that CD testified that he hadn’t spoken to a lawyer before the police interview.

But a transcript of the hours-long interview showed that he spoke to two lawyers before police started asking him questions about the shooting.

“I don’t remember,” CD said several times Monday as Eldred repeatedly asked about his memory lapse. “At this time, I was very preoccupied with the interview that was going to be conducted and I don’t remember much before.”

Eldred pointed to parts of the transcript that showed CD chatting with one of the Mounties present about the fact he had gotten legal advice.

“That’s not one of the parts of our conversation that I recall,” CD testified.

“Certain things came up during this interview that I found shocking and I was surprised, and those are the things that stand out to me most during this interview. So I still don’t remember the discussion about me speaking with my lawyer.”

Eldred asked whether CD was referring to videos he was shown by police of an animated Karbovanec describing the shooting.

CD said the Karbovanec videos were “one of” the things he found shocking.

CD also testified last week that he tried to remain “indifferent” to the police officers and not say much about the Dec. 31, 2008 shooting.

But Eldred again pointed to the transcript and said: “You were actually quite communicative.”

At one point when there were two police in the room, CD said: “I want to see good cop, bad cop,” Eldred noted.

“I think it was a joke,” the witness said Monday. “When you are locked in a room with someone for four hours, you try to do your best to make the best of it.”

He said that while he eventually cooperated with police and agreed to testify against Bacon, he wasn’t prepared in his June 2010 police interview to “confess” to the Karbovanec shooting.

“I didn’t feel my interests were being protected at the time, so I wasn’t forthcoming with my account,” he said.

CD’s cross-examination is expected to continue all week.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Here is a little more from cross-examination of CD – the man who shot Dennis Karbovanec – at the Jamie Bacon trial. He is expected to continue all week. I will try to be back for his testimony Thursday.

Vancouver Police are investigating a fatal shooting at Kitsilano Tuesday night that left a man dead.

Police received calls about shots fired about 8:30 p.m. near West 4^th Avenue and Burrard Street.

The victim died at the scene.

In a brief news release, VPD Const. Jason Doucette said “it is still very early in the investigation, but this appears to be a targeted shooting. No arrests have been made.”

Anyone who may have witnessed the shooting, or has information about the incident, is asked to call the VPD’s Major Crime Section at 604-717-2500 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Vancouver police are looking for witnesses after a Vancouver man was gunned down in his vehicle in Kitsilano on Tuesday night.

Manoj Kumar, 30, died near West Fourth and Burrard around 8:30 p.m. after someone opened fire on his white BMW.

“Based on the circumstances surrounding the shooting, this appears to have been a targeted homicide,” VPD Const. Jason Doucette said. “Although it’s very early in the investigation and we are still working to identify a motive, I can confirm that Mr. Kumar was not known to police and does not have any obvious connections to a criminal lifestyle.”

Nor is Kumar related to Amrendra Vijay Kumar, another 30-year-old man gunned down in Surrey last week who was also completely unknown to police.

Doucette said police received several 911 calls about the shots fired in the busy Kitsilano neighbourhood across the street from a movie complex.

Kumar died instantly.

Photos from the scene show a cluster of bullet holes through the windshield of his vehicle.

Doucette said police received information about “a vehicle leaving the scene. A description was provided.”

“And just around midnight, we were made aware by Vancouver Fire and Rescue Service of a vehicle on fire on West 22nd near Arbutus,” he said.

Police have now seized the vehicle for forensic analysis, although it has not been directly linked to the shooting.

“Any time that there is a vehicle involved and it flees the scene, we are interested in looking into that vehicle to see if there is any evidence in there — forensic evidence — to see if it could lead to a suspect or suspects,” Doucette said. “Our main goal here is public safety and we want to hold the people accountable.”

He said police can still get forensic evidence from a burned vehicle, despite “certain challenges” that are posed.

“We also have other tools in our tool belt that may allow us to pull evidence from that. We are not going to rule anything out. We are going to go over that with a fine-tooth comb,” he said.

Investigators are hoping that witnesses who saw anyone near the burning SUV or fleeing the area will contact police, Doucette said.

Over the last two years, several suspected killers linked to the Brothers Keepers’ gang have abandoned burning vehicles associated with murders across the Lower Mainland.

Doucette said Wednesday that he didn’t yet have any information on the motive in Tuesday’s slaying and whether it is “gang-related.”

But he said the murder had all the “hallmarks” of a targeted shooting.

“We don’t believe the public is at risk,” he said. “We have got one vehicle in a busy area. We have got one person in a vehicle. We have got a number of shots that have been fired directly into that vehicle, so that leads us to believe it is targeted.”

Anyone who saw anything or has dash-cam footage is asked to contact investigators at 604-717-2500.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Bullet holes are seen in the windshield and hood of an SUV as a police officer walks past the vehicle in Vancouver, on Wednesday April 17, 2019, after a person was shot and killed Tuesday night. Vancouver Police say the shooting that occurred in the Kitsilano neighbourhood is believed to be targeted and the victim died at the scene.

Bullet holes are seen in the windshield of an SUV containing a shooting victim as a coroner speaks with police officers in Vancouver early on Wednesday, April 17, 2019, after a person was shot and killed in the Kitsilano neighbourhood Tuesday night.

Bullet holes are seen in the windshield of an SUV as investigators work at the shooting scene in Kitsilano after a man was shot and killed Tuesday night. Vancouver police say the shooting is believed to be targeted and the victim died at the scene.

Vancouver police on on April 16, 2019, investigated in the area of West 4th Avenue and Burrard Street where a male was found shot dead inside a white SUV.

Vancouver police on on April 16, 2019, investigated in the area of West 4th Avenue and Burrard Street where a male was found shot dead inside a white SUV.

Tarps cover an SUV containing a shooting victim as a coroner takes notes and police officers stand at the scene in Vancouver, on Wednesday April 17, 2019, after a person was shot and killed Tuesday night.

Vancouver police on on April 16, 2019, investigated in the area of West 4th Avenue and Burrard Street where a male was found shot dead inside a white SUV.

Bullet holes are seen in the windshield and hood of an SUV as a coroner and investigators look into the vehicle in Vancouver, on Wednesday April 17, 2019, after a person was shot and killed Tuesday night. Vancouver Police say the shooting that occurred in the Kitsilano neighbourhood is believed to be targeted and the victim died at the scene.

Related

• Man charged with four counts of murder in Penticton
• Salmon Arm remembers shooting victim: 'Helping people was his way of serving God'

A key Crown witness at the Jamie Bacon trial testified Thursday that he clearly remembers a December 2008 meeting at Bacon’s Abbotsford home after which he was told he would have to kill Dennis Karbovanec.

The man, who can only be identified as CD due to a publication ban, admitted to Bacon defence lawyer Kimberly Eldred that he didn’t remember some details related to the day of the meeting.

He agreed with her that he had made contradictory statements to police about whether he drove his black Jeep Cherokee or his black Mercedes sedan to Bacon’s home.

He also said he wasn’t sure whether he drove their mutual associate — who can only be called AB — to the meeting or whether AB was already at Bacon’s home when CD arrived.

“The vehicle I was driving in was insignificant to me at the time. I was more concerned with the fact I was going to have to kill Dennis to clear my debt with Jamie,” CD told jurors and B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge.

“What stands out to me most from that night was the intense conversation happening on the white board and what AB told me following.”

Eldred grilled CD, who has been under cross-examination for seven days, about inconsistencies in his statements to police in 2011, as well as during his evidence at the Bacon trial last week.

Bacon is charged with one count of counselling someone to commit murder for the unsuccessful hit on Karbovanec on New Year’s Eve 2008.

CD earlier told jurors that he agreed to kill the Bacon associate because Bacon told him he would forgive CD’s large drug debt.

After luring Karbovanec to a dead-end Mission street, CD said he opened fire, but the Glock handgun he was using jammed and Karbovanec escaped with minor injuries.

He also testified that after he and AB left Bacon’s house, AB filled him in on details of the plot to kill Karbovanec.

He reiterated Thursday that he was shocked about what he was going to have to do.

“I was uncomfortable during this visit to Jamie’s because the conversation between him and AB was more intense than I had ever seen,” CD said. “And when I left with AB and I learned that I was supposed to kill Dennis to clear the debt, everything else seemed a lot less important.”

Eldred then asked: “So you didn’t care about getting the facts right in your November 2011 non-jeopardy statements.”

CD replied that in 2011, he “described what I remembered or what I thought I remembered at that time.”

Eldred also asked CD about his testimony that the meeting at Bacon’s house was a week or two before the attempted murder. She pointed to one police statement where he said it was within a week of the shooting and another where he said it might have been in early December.

He said Thursday that he was “estimating” when the meeting was because he didn’t recall the exact date.

“I was expressing my uncertainty throughout the conversation,” he said after reading one of the 2011 transcripts of his interview with police.

Eldred asked CD about a videotaped statement he gave to police years earlier during which he claimed the white board Bacon wrote on could be folded in half.

He said Thursday he must have been mistaken at the time.

“I don’t recall it being a folding white board, nor do I recall him folding it,” he testified.

Eldred asked whether the use of white boards was a “police avoidance technique.”

Replied CD: “It is something I had learned from Jamie in 2008.”

The trial continues.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

On Thursday at the Jamie Bacon trial, his lawyer Kimberly Eldred continued to question CD about his various statements to police over the years. NOTE: I am closing comments for the long weekend

Here’s my story:

The B.C. government will make a decision on a public inquiry into money laundering after carefully considering two reports that it recently received on the issue, Attorney General David Eby said Tuesday.

Speaking to a Vancouver housing conference, Eby said British Columbians might be surprised if no new information comes from a public inquiry.

“I do worry that people, in the event of a public inquiry, will be disappointed,” Eby said. “It takes two years, you bring people in, there are occasional revelations but it turns out we knew a lot of this stuff.”

“Is it the best route forward? That is one of the debates we are having within government.”

He said that an inquiry, which could cost between $10 and $15 million, “is at best about political accountability.”

“It is about who made the decisions, who benefitted from what has happened. Why did they make those decisions?” he said.

The second B.C. government report into money laundering by Peter German will likely be released within two weeks, Eby said, as well a report prepared by an anti-money laundering panel headed by former deputy minister and public policy professor Maureen Maloney.

“We have both those reports now. Cabinet will make a decision on a public inquiry,” he said.

Already the B.C. government has taken steps to close loopholes that allowed money laundering to flourish through B.C. casinos and has also introduced new legislation designed to expose nominee owners of real estate, Eby said.

But, he said, most of the major changes needed to combat money laundering have to be made by the federal government.

“The big challenge provincially is that so much of this jurisdiction is federal,” he said.

“At the provincial level, we are really trying to figure out how we can do as much as we can here. There are some changes the feds have made as a result of the pressure we have put on them.”

He said a recently introduced criminal code amendment would allow those who may have unwittingly, but recklessly, participated in money laundering to be prosecuted.

“If you were reckless about whether or not you were being used as a tool for money laundering, you could find yourself facing criminal charges. The existing law requires that the prosecutors prove that you knew that these were criminal proceeds,” he explained. “That recklessness change is going to make a big difference.”

But he doesn’t expect a lot of criminal prosecutions in B.C. despite the serious problem. A finding in German’s most recent report, which was revealed earlier this month, was that there were few dedicated federal RCMP officers assigned to investigate money laundering in B.C.

Instead, money laundering will be gradually reduced because of the regulatory changes that make it harder to do in this province. Those involved will move to other jurisdictions, Eby said.

“The most frustrating thing to people is the absence of criminal prosecutions, the absence of arrests, the absence of consequences,” he said.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

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Vancouver Police investigating the slaying last week of local resident Manoj Kumar are hoping someone has dash-cam video of a vehicle linked to the shooting.

Homicide detectives are now investigating after a man was found in critical condition on a Surrey street Tuesday.

Surrey RCMP said in a news release that police were called by Emergency Health Services who attended to the injured man about 3:15 pm. He was found laying on the ground in the 13300-block of 114th Ave and died after being transported to hospital.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team is now on the scene, working with Surrey RCMP. No word yet about whether the death is targeted or linked to other recent slayings on the Lower Mainland.

Surrey RCMP media officer, Cpl. Elenore Sturko, said it’s early in the investigation and no further information will be provided at this time.

Anyone with information is asked to contact IHIT at 1-877-551-4448 or ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.

United Nations gang founder Clay Roueche has been granted a reduction in his 30-year sentence after telling a Seattle judge last month that he is a changed man.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Robert Lasnik cut 72 months — or six years — off of Roueche’s 360-month term, which Lasnik originally imposed in December 2009 after Roueche pleaded guilty to smuggling cocaine and marijuana, as well as money laundering.

Roueche had filed his own appeal last month, noting that the sentencing guidelines for his crimes had been lowered since he was sent to prison for three decades 10 years ago.

He asked for a reduction to 21 years and 10 months.

But Lasnik said in his written ruling Tuesday that the reduction should land Roueche’s sentence somewhere in the middle of the new guidelines.

As part of his review, Lasnik said that he had to consider “the nature and seriousness of the danger to any person or the community that may be posed by a reduction in the defendant’s term of imprisonment.”

But he said he could also factor in “the post-sentencing conduct of the defendant that occurred after imposition of the term of imprisonment.”

He noted that Roueche’s behaviour in prison has been “exemplary”and that he has taken dozens of self-improvement and educational courses.

“The Court is pleased to note that Mr. Roueche has committed only one infraction while incarcerated, described as a minor assault,” Lasnik said.

“Letters from his family members and friends indicate that he has a support system in place.”

But the judge also reiterated the seriousness of Roueche’s original crimes — “the massive amounts of drugs, the highly sophisticated means of transportation, the huge amounts of money, and the pervasive presence of weapons” — as well as “Roueche’s leadership role in the UN gang.”

The U.S. Attorney noted in her submissions on Roueche’s appeal that he “was responsible for the smuggling, transporting, and distributing over 418 kilograms of cocaine and over 1,290 kilograms of marijuana” and said that “it was undisputed that members of this sprawling criminal enterprise had employed acts of violence.”

Several of Roueche’s UN gang mates have been convicted in B.C. of both conspiracy and murder over the last decade.

Roueche was arrested in Texas in May 2008 after he attempted to enter Mexico for a UN gang initiation ceremony. Canadian authorities had tipped their Mexican counterparts and he was denied admission to the country. He was sent back to Canada on a flight that landed in Texas where U.S. police were waiting for him.

He pleaded guilty in a Seattle courtroom on April 28, 2009 and was sentenced seven months later.

Roueche said in his written court submissions last month that he pleaded guilty “to end this chapter of my life that has brought my family so much grief.”

“I never took into account that my lifestyle then would have such a negative impact on the world around me,” Roueche wrote. “After recognizing the devastating effects that the drug trade has caused internationally, and that I was a factor in that cause, I confronted my past, accepted my conduct as my own, and took responsibility.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

United Nations gang founder Clay Roueche wrote his own legal arguments last month trying to take advantage of new sentencing guidelines in the U.S. implemented long after he was handed a 30-year term in 2009.

And on Tuesday he learned that his sentence will be reduced by six years.

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