Man nets 12-year sentence for bringing gun to deadly shooting

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This article was published 01/11/2016 (3553 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

His last-minute decision to back out of a gang shooting at a downtown restaurant didn’t shield a 22-year-old man from a 12-year prison sentence.

Morgan Van Bone didn’t pull the trigger, but he brought the gun to Johnny G’s on Main Street for other members of the Mad Cowz gang before rival gang member William Edward Moar, 24, was shot and killed just before 2 a.m. on Feb. 15, 2013.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Douglas Abra decided Bone’s participation in the murder plot warranted a 12-year sentence — three years less than what Crown prosecutor Libby Standil recommended. Defence lawyer Todd Bourcier had asked for eight years, telling court his client was merely a pawn caught up in a gang lifestyle he’s since left behind.

Bone pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and participating in organized crime and was given time-and-a-half credit for the more than three years he’s been behind bars since his May 2013 arrest.

“Notwithstanding that the accused backed out of the premeditated shooting at the last minute, he did supply the firearm that resulted in the shooting. For this, he has to receive a significant sentence,” Abra said. But the judge also noted Bone “has expressed a desire, which I consider to be sincere, to turn his life around.”

Before the shooting, Bone, who sold drugs for the Mad Cowz, was instructed to deal with “a beef” between the Mad Cowz and the rival B-side gang. The plan was for him to shoot Moar, a B-side member, but instead Bone handed the sawed-off 22 rifle to a 15-year-old boy, who fired the gun inside the restaurant, where about a dozen people were present.

The teen who was found guilty of first-degree murder for shooting Moar will be sentenced as an adult, and a third co-accused, Akech Dut Ajak, is set to stand trial for first-degree murder this spring.

Court heard Bone was assessed as a very high risk to re-offend based on his lack of education and employment, his gang involvement and criminal background. His longtime partner and mother of his two children died in a fire earlier this year, court heard, and he now wants out of gang life. He was badly beaten in custody on behalf of the Mad Cowz after he decided to cut ties with the gang earlier this year.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay