Surrey Six trial hears accused was happy, proud and wanted to talk after slayings

VANCOUVER — One of two men accused in the Surrey Six murders was proud and feeling “charged” shortly after the killings, a key Crown witness says.

The witness, who can be identified only by the intial Y due to a publication ban, on Tuesday described how Red Scorpions gang leader Jamie Bacon orchestrated a plan to kill rival drug dealer Corey Lal, one of the Surrey Six victims.

The plan was hatched several weeks before the October 2007 murders in a Surrey high-rise, Y told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge.

Several hours after the murders, Y said, he drove with Bacon in a vehicle to the Coquitlam apartment of a man who can be identified only by the initial X, also due to a publication ban.

X, who has pleaded guilty to murder in connection with the Surrey Six case and is serving a life prison term, shot three of the victims, court has heard.

Y said that while Bacon went upstairs to visit with X, he stayed in Bacon’s vehicle outside the apartment complex.

Soon thereafter, one of the two men on trial, Matthew Johnston, arrived in a vehicle and got into Y’s vehicle, said Y.

Johnston was happy, proud and wanting to talk, said Y.

“He said there was lots of bodies, it was like one after the other, and that he had to pull somebody in.”

Johnston used a hand signal to indicate with six fingers that that was how many bodies there were, said Y.

“I don’t even know if I was ready to believe it.”

Johnston was not exuberant, but was feeling “charged” as he spoke about it, he said.

“I wouldn’t have wanted to hear about it. Even if you go and kill somebody, you don’t go and tell somebody about it.”

Court has heard that Y, a member of the Red Scorpions gang, earlier pleaded guilty to two unrelated murders and is serving a life sentence.

Y earlier testified about the plan to target Lal, a rival drug dealer who had crossed the Red Scorpions.

After Lal refused to pay a $100,000 “tax” to the gang, Bacon wanted to “put the hurt on him and finish him off, kill him,” said Y.

“It wasn’t going to be about taking any money from him, he had to go. If we didn’t do something now, it’s going to make the whole group look weak.”

Shortly afterward, the gang was summoned to a meeting at a restaurant in Surrey.

Bacon started catching a “vibe” that something wasn’t right and they parked across the street, said Y.

Two men came across the street towards them who “looked like regular Surrey lowlifes” and Y got out of his vehicle and grabbed a gun from one of the men, said Y.

Shots were fired and they left the scene, said Y.

The Crown witness said that after the hit on Lal was ordered, Bacon put pressure on X and Johnston to carry out the murder.

X was “like a beaten animal” due to his treatment by Bacon, who wasn’t happy that his associate had failed in two earlier hits, said Y.

At a meeting prior to the shooting, Y said, he met with Michael Le, who earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in the Surrey Six case, and several others in the gang.

Y said he was under the impression that Lal had already been hit, but soon learned that was not the case.

Le wanted Y to kill Lal but he wasn’t happy with that idea, said the prosecution witness.

Y said, however, that as the meeting broke up, X approached him and asked to borrow Y’s gun.

He was concerned because he kept the gun in his boxer shorts and there might be DNA, but he handed the weapon over to X, he said.

It was the same gun that Y had seized from Lal during a meeting prior the the slayings,said Y.

At that meeting, Lal, an otherwise “cocky” gangster, was petrified as he met with Bacon and others, said Y.

Bacon berated Lal and told him with a snap of the fingers that he could have him killed, he added.

Johnston and Cody Haevischer have both pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

The trial continues.