UN gang member sentenced to 12 years for Bacon brothers murder conspiracy, manslaughter

VANCOUVER — A high-ranking member of the United Nations gang was sentenced Friday to 12 years for conspiracy to murder the Bacon brothers and manslaughter.

After almost eight years credit for time served, Daniel Ronald Russell will be eligible for full parole in four years and two months.

B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Austin Cullen handed down the sentence in the high-security courtroom built for the prosecution of UN gang members.

It was based on a joint submission by Crown Ralph Keefer and defence lawyer Len Doust.

Russell pleaded guilty Tuesday as gang cops from the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit patrolled the corridors of the Vancouver Law Courts.

The latest indictment, sworn last month, said that between January 1, 2008 and February 17, 2009 Russell conspired to commit the murders of Jonathan, James and Jarrod Bacon and their associates.

And it says that Russell committed manslaughter on May 9, 2008, in relation to the fatal shooting of Jonathan Barber.

Immediately after Russell’s two guilty pleas, Cullen imposed a sweeping publication ban on evidence and submissions presented in court by Crown Ralph Keefer. The ban is to remain in effect until the completion of five trials in which suspects linked to the UN face a series of charges.

Russell was first arrested in May 2009 with several other members of the UN gang and charged with conspiring to kill the Bacon brothers and their Red Scorpion associates.

Then in January 2011, police announced that the original defendants, as well as two new accused – Conor D’ Monte and purported hitman Cory Vallee – were also being charged with murder for the shooting death of Barber.

Barber, a stereo installer with no gang links, was driving a Porsche Cayenne owned by the Bacons along Kingsway in Burnaby when the vehicle was riddled with bullets. His 17-year old girlfriend, driving a vehicle behind him, was wounded. Barber had just picked up the Porsche to work on it.

D’Monte and Vallee have never been captured and are believed to have fled the country.

Russell, an original member of the UN gang, was also charged south of the border for conspiracy to distribute cocaine. His co-accused in the Washington State case, UN gang founder Clay Roueche, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years.