Convicted Bandidos massacre bikers file appeals

Five of the six defendants convicted in the massacre of eight of their fellow Bandido bikers have moved quickly to file appeals of the verdicts at their trial.

The necessary documents were filed over the past week with the Ontario Court of Appeal, just days after the six men were convicted of a total of 44 counts of first-degree murder and four counts of manslaughter by a jury in London, Ontario.

Brett Gardiner became the fifth person to give notice that he is appealing his conviction and sentence, filing the necessary document on Wednesday afternoon.

The only defendant who has not yet filed a notice of appeal is Wayne Kellestine, the mastermind of the plan to kill eight members of the Toronto Bandidos at his southwestern Ontario farm in April 2006. Kellestine has until the end of November to file a notice of appeal.

The initial document is only two pages in length and a procedural requirement for anyone seeking to appeal a conviction in Ontario.

It is clear that the instructions given to the jury by Superior Court Justice Thomas Heeney will figure prominently at the eventual appeal hearing, as well the deliberations of the jury itself.

The judge is alleged to have made numerous legal errors in the appeal documents filed by Marcelo Aravena and Michael Sandham.

Aravena, who was not alleged to have killed anyone directly but helped in the confinement of the Toronto Bandidos before they were killed, testified at the trial that he feared he would be the next victim. He argues that Judge Heeney took away a defence of “duress” in his instructions to the jury.

Former Winnipeg-area police officer turned biker Michael Sandham, maintains in his appeal document that it was self-defence. He admitted during the trial to fatally shooting Luis “Chopper” Raposo, but said it was after the Toronto biker fired first during a Bandidos “meeting” in the barn on the Kellestine property on April 7, 2006.

“The 48 verdicts were perverse and made no sense,” writes Sandham.

The conclusions of the jury are also criticized by Gardiner, who was inside the residence of Kellestine, “manning the [police] scanners,” most of the night while the Toronto bikers were being executed. “The verdict was unreasonable and contrary to the evidence,” writes Gardiner.

All six defendants were sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 25 years. Their appeals are unlikely to be heard until late 2011 or early in 2012.