44 murder verdicts in Bandido deaths

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This article was published 30/10/2009 (6106 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LONDON, Ont. — An internal cleansing of the Bandidos biker gang that saw eight bullet-ridden bodies stuffed into cars and abandoned in rural southwestern Ontario resulted Thursday in 44 first-degree murder convictions — including eight for Wayne Kellestine, the purported mastermind of the slaying.

Five other men who were portrayed at trial, along with Kellestine, as power-hungry schemers or wannabes gunning for status in the outlaw motorcycle club, were all found guilty of various counts of first-degree murder.

Three of the men found guilty were Winnipeggers, including Michael Sandham, Dwight Mushey and Brett Gardiner.

A couple’s discovery of four cars near their rural property on April 8, 2006 would lead police to a gruesome scene — the bodies of the eight men shot at least 24 times at close range and crammed into the vehicles.

They were found just kilometres away from Kellestine’s farmhouse. During a six-month trial that heard from more than 70 witnesses, prosecutors successfully argued that seven of the eight men were led out of Kellestine’s barn and executed, one by one.

It’s believed to be Ontario’s largest mass slaying.

Many of the defence lawyers for Kellestine’s co-accused branded him a “psychopath” and a “monster” and placed the blame at his feet.

On Thursday, Kellestine, Mushey and former police officer Sandham were found guilty of eight counts each of first-degree murder after just 14 hours of jury deliberations over less than two days.

After the first verdict was read Kellestine nodded his head slightly, and when his fate was sealed he looked at one of his lawyers and raised his eyebrows.

Kellestine’s lead lawyer, Clay Powell, said outside court that his client was probably expecting the guilty verdicts, and added “he’s fine.”

The jury, however, didn’t put all the blame on him. They appear to have accepted the Crown’s submission that if at any point any of the men on trial forcibly confined any of the men who were killed, it had to be first-degree murder.

Four manslaughter verdicts — one for Frank Mather, one for Marcelo Aravena and two for Brett Gardiner — were rendered in cases where the men appeared on the scene after someone had been killed.

Mather and Aravena were also found guilty of seven counts of first-degree murder, and Gardiner was found guilty of six counts.

As the judge thanked the jury for their service, Aravena raised both middle fingers high and launched into an obscenity-laden tirade against both the jury and his lawyer. He was removed from the court while lawyers discussed sentencing scheduling.

First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years. Even so, lawyers return to court Friday for sentencing so family members of the victims get a chance to make victim impact statements.

Sandham’s lawyer, Donald Crawford, said his client was “disappointed obviously.”

“I’ve always said over the years that you always should trust the jury,” Crawford said outside the court.

“I don’t understand how the jury could get through all that evidence… in something like a day and a half.”

Mather is “definitely” appealing, said his lawyer, Greg Leslie. Mather was not a Bandido and had been staying at Kellestine’s house, and while the Crown presented evidence he was a Bandido supporter and wanted to become a prospect, his lawyer said he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Mr. Mather’s very disappointed,” Leslie said outside court. “He’s almost in a state of shock.”

The Crown successfully argued that the murders were the result of rising tensions between the dead men and the probationary Bandidos chapter in Winnipeg.

Kellestine, a member of the Toronto chapter, had become increasingly alienated from his Toronto brothers and allied with the Winnipeg men.

Court heard he had received orders from U.S. Bandidos officials to strip the Toronto men of their gang affiliation and start a new Canadian chapter, but at some point in the days or hours leading up to the killings the plan changed to mass murder.

Killed that fateful night was George Jessome, 52, George Kriarakis, 28, John Muscedere, 48, Luis Raposo, 41, Frank Salerno, 43, Paul Sinopoli, 30, Jamie Flanz, 37, and Michael Trotta, 31.

Ontario Provincial Police Det.-Insp. Paul Beesley, who was in charge of the case, said justice was served for the families of those eight men.

— The Canadian Press