The orders to kill Bandido bikers came from "El Presidente," the trial of six men accused in the slayings of eight Toronto bikers heard yesterday.
Ex-police officer Michael Sandham, on trial for eight counts of first-degree murder, testified that Jeff Pike, the world president or El Presidente of the Bandido motorcycle club, told him firsthand in a Houston, Tex., biker bar he had ordered the killing of some Canadian Bandido biker brass.
That bombshell came during his second day of Mr. Sandham's testimony as he continued to minimize his involvement in the shootings of the Toronto Bandidos and proclaim shock and fear over the deaths.
While U.S. involvement has been pointed out during the trial, Mr. Sandham's testimony was the first time Mr. Pike has been directly linked in testimony to the shooting of the eight bikers on April 8, 2006, at Wayne Kellestine's southwestern Ontario farm.
The face-to-face meeting with Mr. Pike was almost two months after the killings and when Mr. Sandham, 39, portrayed during the trial as the president of the Winnipeg Bandidos, travelled to Houston to meet the head bikers.
Mr. Sandham testified that he first heard Mr. Pike's order during a meeting at the Canada-U.S. border, at Peace Arch Park at White Rock, B.C., with American Bandidos in the weeks before the shootings, from the Bandidos World sergeant-at-arms.