There was tight security at the B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster on Tuesday, where the trial of an alleged contract killer got underway.
Metal detectors were in place at both the front door and the courtroom door, as sheriffs provided a watchful eye.
Brandon Teixeira pleaded not guilty to three charges — first-degree murder, attempted murder and discharging a firearm — related to two victims.
He’s accused in the death of Nicolas Khabra, 28, and an attack on a second person, dubbed “Person A,” who survived and is expected to testify at the trial.
Numerous elements of the case, including several people’s identities, are covered by publication bans.
The Crown alleges that Teixiera shot and stabbed Khabra in a targeted hit in October 2017, in a contract worth $160,000
Crown prosecutor Dianne Wiedemann told the 14-person jury Teixeira had accepted the “contract to kill” because he believed Khabra had set him up in a drive-by shooting several days prior.
On the night of the killing, Teixeira pulled a gun out of his waistband and shot Khabra four or five times, Wiedemann told the jury.
The Crown alleged a second person who was in on the murder plot — dubbed Person X, and who will be a key witness in the trial — was sitting in a vehicle at the time, watching, as Teixeira pulled the trigger.
The jury heard from Crown’s first Witness Tuesday, RCMP Cpl. Kenneth Ho, who described Khabra’s blood-covered body lying in the doorway of a house with apparent bullet holes in his chest.
The trial is expected to last six to eight months.
–with files from Rumina Daya