RCMP officers search the property surrounding an apartment building where six people died in a mulitple homicide in Surrey, B.C. Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2007.Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press
A British Columbia judge has stayed charges against an alleged gang leader accused of taking part in a mass slaying in which six people – including two bystanders – were killed.
Jamie Bacon, who is accused of being the leader of the violent Red Scorpions at the heart of the "Surrey Six" homicides in a Surrey apartment tower in 2007, has had charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder stayed for reasons that have been sealed by the court. However, Mr. Bacon remains in custody on a separate charge of counselling the murder of an individual connected to the case. That trial is scheduled to begin in April.
The killings came to define a bloody Metro Vancouver gang war.
BC Attorney-General David Eby wrote in a statement that he was tremendously disappointed by Friday's ruling.
"When I learned of the Supreme Court of British Columbia's decision to stay the charges for James Kyle Bacon, I was shocked, as I'm sure all British Columbians are right now," he said.
"The families of the victims and all who have been impacted by this terrible crime deserve peace, and they will not find it today."
Mr. Eby said the Prosecution Service is reviewing the court's decision closely to identify possible avenues of appeal and it "is important to note that the individual remains in custody on other related charges."
Mr. Bacon's lawyer said he couldn't comment on sealed proceedings.
The ruling, issued by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Ker, granted Mr. Bacon's application that both counts on his indictment be stayed. But Justice Ker said her reasons for entering the stay, the materials filed and the evidence adduced could not be disclosed to protect the Crown's claims of privilege.
The ruling said the court had heard "a number of pretrial applications involving complex legal and factual issues, including that Mr. Bacon's counsel had come into possession of privileged information that they cannot use in his defence, which impacts upon Mr. Bacon's fair trial rights."
Justice Ker added that she had determined an individual referred to as Person X could not be called by the Crown as a witness in order to protect Mr. Bacon's fair trial rights.
The Prosecution Service noted that two other men, Cody Haevischer and Matthew Johnston, were convicted in the Surrey Six case in 2014. They were convicted of six counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder and are serving life sentences with no chance of parole for 25 years.
Mr. Haevischer and Mr. Johnston's trial heard that the two men – who were both members of the Red Scorpions gang – were ordered to murder Corey Lal, a rival drug trafficker.
The court has previously heard that Person X was also involved in the murders. Person X pleaded guilty in April of 2009 to three counts of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Mr. Bacon was charged in 2014 with counselling someone to commit murder; court documents released at the time identified the target as Person X.
The Prosecution Service said Mr. Bacon was charged on a separate indictment from Mr. Haevischer and Mr. Johnston "to allow the court to deal with applications that involved only Mr. Bacon."
It said the nature of the applications included issues relating to solicitor-client privilege, litigation privilege, informer privilege and public-interest privilege.
The other five men who were killed in the Surrey Six homicides were identified as Mr. Lal's brother, Michael, Ryan Bartolomeo, Eddie Narong, Ed Schellenberg and Chris Mohan. Police have said Mr. Schellenberg, a fireplace repairman, and Mr. Mohan, who lived across the hall from the murder scene, were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Eileen Mohan, Mr. Mohan's mother, said she walked out of a meeting with the Crown on Friday once she learned the charges had been stayed.
"Today, I am broken," she said. "Ever since I buried my son, my life stopped, and I stopped my life to ensure that he got justice because he lost his voice.
"Justice did not happen for him. How do I accept something like this? Everything inside me wants to scream."
With a report from The Canadian Press