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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Patch drove bikers to murder, Crown prosecutor tells jury

By: Jane Sims

Posted: 10/24/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

LONDON, Ont. -- The marathon trial of six men accused of killing eight Toronto-area bikers was passed to the judge's hands Friday after nearly seven months.

On Monday, Superior Court Justice Thomas Heeney is expected to begin his charge to the jury.

Heeney warned jurors Friday at the end of the Crown's closing address his comments will be lengthy.

He expects to address the jury for the better part of two days.

After Heeney finishes, the six men and six women will begin to decide the fate of the six men who have each pleaded not guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder.

Crown attorney Kevin Gowdey spent Day 3 articulating how the jury could reach findings of guilt for each accused.

Gowdey first focused on the reliability of an informant known only as M.H., the star Crown witness who was part of the Winnipeg Bandidos and took part in the events at Wayne Kellestine's southwestern Ontario farm on April 8, 2006.

He recited to the jury a long list of evidence -- almost 60 separate points -- that corroborates M.H.'s testimony.

Where M.H. said something happened, investigators found evidence.

The motives, the biker ambitions and the actions of each man were reviewed in detail.

Michael Sandham "wanted to be a one-percenter (an outlaw biker) more than anything in the world," Gowdey said, but just as his full patch, or club membership, was within sight, the Canadian Bandidos were ordered kicked out of the worldwide club.

Gowdey's final comments were saved for Kellestine, "the general" who was "one of the prime movers" of the plan. "No accused was more involved than Mr. Kellestine," Gowdey said.

Gowdey said Kellestine's words to his common law spouse over the phone summed up the case -- "I got us all in trouble, didn't I?"

At the end of his address, Gowdey held up a Bandido biker vest, saying the patch was "more than just a piece of embroidered cloth to the men."

He pointed to a collage of picture of the dead bikers.

"One a cold night in April 2006, these men were executed by these men," he said, pointing to the prisoner's box. "All, so they could get this on their back."

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 24, 2009 A14

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