Former wrestler jailed for role in 2006 killing

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Victim Minh Hong Huynh was a business administration student who dreamed of opening his own restaurant.

A former pro wrestler admits he helped cover up the grisly slaying of a Winnipeg university student by destroying evidence and hiding one of the alleged killers.

John Dacamara, who was known in the ring as "Johnny Wiseguy," was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to the rare charge of accessory after the fact to murder.

Dacamara, 37, also admitted to two other separate crimes that were rolled into his overall sentence -- keeping a two-kilogram stash of cocaine inside his home and possessing a shotgun while leaving threatening voice-mail messages on the phone of a man who later tried to commit suicide.

Defence lawyer Mike Cook said his client destroyed his promising athletic career -- and disappointed his hard-working Portuguese immigrant parents -- by getting involved with the wrong crowd. Dacamara had dreams of working with the Vince McMahon-led World Wrestling Entertainment but spent most of his career toiling on the independent circuits in Canada and the U.S. Dacamara's most serious crime involves the role he played in the April 2006 killing of Minh Hong Huynh outside Club Desire on Main Street and Bannatyne Avenue.

Crown attorney Brent Davidson said Dacamara rented a SUV for some friends, although he apparently wasn't aware of any specific plans they had.

Dacamara was then called to meet with the men shortly after the 24-year-old Huynh was stabbed to death. "He learned there had been a fatal stabbing and he participated in the cleanup of the vehicle and the harbouring of one of the suspects," said Davidson. Dacamara also arranged for the vehicle to be dismantled, he said.

It's believed Huynh was at Club Desire earlier in the evening and had been asked by staff to leave following a dispute with another man inside the bar. The deadly attack was witnessed by more than a dozen people including film producer Andrew Paquin, the brother of Oscar-winning actress Anna Paquin. The siblings were in Winnipeg at the time working on the film Blue State.

Huynh's sister, Thanh, said her brother was a business administration student at Red River College and talked about one day opening his own restaurant.

Glen Sherman Monkman, Norris Ponce and Carlos Tavares have all been charged with first-degree murder. They remain before the courts and are presumed innocent. Dacamara wasn't implicated in the case until after he was arrested on July 25, 2006 following a Winnipeg police drug investigation. Officers, acting on a tip, found two kilograms of cocaine inside his home. The drugs carried a street value of $80,000, and police seized nearly $30,000 cash, which was proceeds from previous sales.

www.mikeoncrime.com

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 25, 2009 A4