Bacon associate pleads guilty, three others to be charged with Surrey Six massacre

From Vancouver Sun

Four members of the Red Scorpions gang have been arrested in connection with the worst gangland slaying in B.C. history: the execution of six people in a Surrey highrise 18 months ago.

One of the four, infamous gangster Dennis Karbovanec, pleaded guilty Friday in B.C. Supreme Court to three counts of second-degree murder for shooting three of the victims, and to conspiring to kill a fourth.

His associates, Jamie Bacon, 23, and Cody Rae Haevischer and Matt Johnston, both 24, were expected to be charged with murder and being co-conspirators today after being nabbed at gunpoint Friday by Emergency Response Teams.

Karbovanec admitted he shot Chris Mohan, an innocent passerby, as well as drug dealers Michael Lal, 26, and Ryan Bartolomeo, 19, in a penthouse on the 15th floor of the Balmoral Tower highrise on Oct. 19, 2007.

Mohan’s mother Eileen said she could barely believe what she was hearing as she sat in courtroom 20 Friday and listened to the 27-year-old confess.

“It was very emotional, almost like reading a story book, but in fact it was reality,” Eileen Mohan said.

She said she was “wishing I was not sitting in the courtroom, but sitting with my Chris at home. When my son’s name was said out, it seemed as Chris was going to walk out and come to me.”

She burst into tears as other victims’ relatives also got emotional.

Bacon, Johnston and Haevischer and a mysterious “Person X” are named in the indictment for allegedly conspiring to kill Corey Lal, a 22-year-old drug dealer operating out of suite 1505 with his crew.

The indictment suggests that the other five who were shot in the head that day, including fireplace repairman Ed Schellenberg, 55, were not the intended targets of the murder plot.

Lal’s brother Michael, 26, was also slain, as was Eddie Narong, 22, an original member of the Red Scorpion gang.

Karbovanec will be sentenced before Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm on April 9.

Karbovanec was out on bail on a series of charges, including 11 related to possessing a loaded automatic weapon and silencer, when the surprise news of his plea broke. Just two weeks ago, Port Moody police issued a statement saying the targeted gangster — who the public had been warned to stay away from — had moved away. There was no mention of his new community, prompting many to speculate he had gone into police protective custody.

Chris Mohan, who lived across the hall from the death penthouse, had stayed home that afternoon to wait for the fireplace man. He would have just been leaving for his basketball game when the killers arrived.

The Lal brothers, Bartolomeo and Narong, were selling drugs in the Surrey central neighbourhood and had at one time been aligned with some of those now charged. But a dispute arose over profiting without paying a tax back to the Red Scorpions, The Vancouver Sun has learned.

Schellenberg’s brother-in-law, Steve Brown, said he was relieved about both the charges and the guilty plea.

“My head is spinning,” Brown said.

Brown had left Schellenberg, his work partner, just a few hours before the murders in the late afternoon on that rainy, cold Friday. Schellenberg also sent home his nephew, who was working with the pair, saying he would finish up the job.

Brown said credit has to go to police who worked tirelessly on the case.