Former Red Scorpions gang leader Jamie Bacon has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in the Surrey Six murders.
Given credit for time served, Bacon’s sentence now amounts to five years and seven months.
Bacon pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy to commit the murder of Corey Lal, the intended target of the killings that took place at the Balmoral Tower building in Surrey on Oct. 19, 2007.
A first-degree murder charge in connection with the Surrey Six case was stayed as part of the plea deal.
Families of the victims shed tears as Justice Kathleen Ker of the B.C. Supreme Court delivered the sentence.
The Crown and defence jointly sought an 18-year sentence for conspiracy to commit murder, served concurrently with a 10-year sentence for counselling to commit murder.
A lawyer for Bacon, now 35, said previously if the sentencing submission is accepted, his client is looking at an additional five to six years in prison after time served is taken into account.
During Bacon’s sentencing hearing last month, the court heard in an agreed statement of facts that the killings were carried out to advance the drug trafficking business of the Red Scorpions gang.
Crown attorney Mark Wolf said the gang formed when Bacon and another gang leader began working together to expand their market using violence and intimidation to force others to surrender their drug lines.
Bacon took offence when he heard that Lal had told one of his associates that he should work for Lal instead, Wolf said.
He met with Lal and others at a McDonald’s restaurant, where he berated and threatened Lal, telling him he owed Bacon a $100,000 tax
by the same night.
“Bacon told Lal that if he did not pay he would have to be prepared to deal with the consequences, namely, that Lal would be killed,” Wolf told the court on during an Aug. 28 sentencing hearing.
Wolf said the murders were committed at the direction of Bacon and another gang leader.
Four of the victims — Corey Lal, his brother Michael Lal, and associates Eddie Narong and Ryan Bartolomeo — were targeted but two men were innocent bystanders. Police said Christopher Mohan, 22, who lived on the floor where the killings occurred, and Ed Schellenberg, 55, a maintenance worker, were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Bacon’s sentencing hearing also included victim impact statements from family members of those killed, including from Mohan’s mother.
“Who do you think you are to decide who lives and dies?” Eileen Mohan told Bacon.
“I feel cheated with life,” Mohan told the court. “I long to have him back … to share a meal with him, to dance with him, to share our love. But everything is impossible, unattainable. How I wish this crime did not touch our son.”
Following Bacon’s sentencing on Friday, a tearful Mohan expressed her profound disappointment with the sentence, saying she felt her victim impact statement “did not carry any weight” with the court.
“Today is really, really difficult to accept,” she said. “I want to respect the process, but it seems the process is not respecting us in return.”
— With files from The Canadian Press
Comments