TORONTO – The lawyer for one of five men challenging murder convictions in what’s believed to be Ontario’s largest mass slaying says his client didn’t know anyone would die that night, nor did he help anyone carry out the execution-style killings.
Brett Gardiner’s lawyer told the Ontario Court of Appeal this morning there was no evidence at trial to support the jury’s finding that his client aided and abetted in six of the killings.
Christopher Hicks says Gardiner should have been convicted of manslaughter in all eight deaths, instead of just two.
In all, Gardiner and five other men were convicted of 44 counts of first-degree murder and four counts of manslaughter in the slaying of eight members of the Bandidos biker gang in April 2006.
The bodies of the bikers were found stuffed into cars and abandoned at a rural property near London.
The Crown argued at the trial that the murders were the result of rising tensions between the dead men and the probationary Bandidos chapter in Winnipeg.
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