The trial for the three men charged in the 2011 murder of B.C. gangster Jonathan Bacon is expected to be delayed longer.
The matter is set to return to a Kelowna courtroom later this week, following a long winter break, but courthouse staff say that they don’t believe the trial is expected to get fully underway until the spring.
“The case has been adjourned to accommodate witness issues,” said Dan McLaughlin, communications counsel for the Criminal Justice Branch, when the case went on hiatus in October.
The witness issues being dealt with have to do with those who were also were involved in criminal activity prior to their co-operation with the Crown. Their statements are being vetted for their protection and that process appears to be ongoing.
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Jujhar Singh Khun-Khun, Michael Jones and Jason McBride each face the charge of first degree murder and a number of attempted murder and firearms offences for the 2011 shooting in Kelowna.
McBride, Khun-Khun and Jones were arrested in 2013 and their original trial was scheduled for April 4, 2016.
It was then delayed to Nov. 7, 2016.
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Bacon, a 30-year-old Red Scorpion gang leader, was shot to death outside the Delta Grand Hotel as he got into his Porsche Cayenne Aug. 14, 2011.
He was the eldest of the three notorious Bacon brothers from Abbotsford, who at the time were in the middle of a gang war.
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The shooting also wounded a full-patch member of the Hells Angels, Larry Amero, a member of the Independent Soldiers gang, James Riach, Leah Hadden Watts who was left a paraplegic and Lyndsey Black, who was shot through both her legs.
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