VANCOUVER — Just days after being convicted of first-degree murder, gangster Albert Jackman has pleaded guilty to two charges in connection with a separate 2009 sledgehammer attack on an associate.
Jackman appeared by video-link in New Westminster Supreme Court Thursday to schedule his sentencing hearing for June 24 in connection with guilty pleas for aggravated assault and unlawful confinement.
Jackman has admitted he brutally beat his former Red Scorpion mate Tyler Willock in a Langley residence on March 8, 2009.
The beating came after Willock was allegedly targeted by the United Nations gang in a Surrey shooting a month earlier, but was not injured.
Sgt. Shinder Kirk, of the Gang Task Force, said the Willock beating shows that police take all cases of gang violence seriously, even when it involves internal conflicts within groups.
“This case involved a vicious assault that left the victim with substantial injuries. It underscores the violent nature of the gang world, but more importantly, it highlights the significant investigative efforts police will undertake to identify and arrest those responsible,” Kirk said Thursday.
A week ago, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein convicted Jackman of murder in the March 28, 2009 stabbing death of Kyle Barber, also in Langley. For that, he received a life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years.
The judge also convicted Barber’s associate Gregory Barrett of manslaughter. He will be sentenced in November.
Stromberg-Stein described how Jackman intimidated Barber during a home invasion by showing him Jackman’s Red Scorpion tattoo on his hand.
The duo burst into the home Barber shared with his girlfriend, demanding information about a theft of $50,000 worth of pot from a neighbouring barn.
The girlfriend testified at trial that the two men were violent and pushed their way in, with Barrett holding her and Jackman savagely beating Barber with a pair of scissors in his fist.
Jackman had claimed during the trial that he stabbed Barber in self-defence and that he and Barrett had only gone to the house to make an inquiry, with the tone of the conversation friendly.
But Stromberg-Stein said Barber sustained defensive wounds to both hands, wounds on his face consistent with a pair of scissors, and he had been stabbed in the back, the legs and several other places. A slash to his carotid artery under his jaw was the fatal wound.
Jackman apologized to Barber’s mother Carol for the attack.
“I hope and pray that one day you can forgive me, and that this will give you the closure you so desperately need,” he said.
He has been in jail since his 2009 arrest, so will be eligible for parole in 2034.
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