SURREY Six killers Cody Haevischer and Matthew Johnston, who were sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years last December in the 2007 Surrey Six murders, filed their conviction appeals in the B.C. Court of Appeal on Thursday.
Last October, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge found Haevischer and Johnston each guilty of six counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder.
Haevischer was also sentenced to18 years for conspiracy while Johnston was sentenced for 20 years for conspiracy. “The conspiracy itself was by its nature so dangerous, so callous and so fraught with risk that it in fact resulted in six deaths, rather than one,” Wedge had noted.
Last November, the judge dismissed an application by the two to have their charges stayed “for abuse of process arising from both systemic police misconduct during the investigation, and inhumane conditions of confinement while on remand.”
Innocent victims Chris Mohan, 22, and Edward J. Schellenberg, 55, of Abbotsford and four other victims who police say led criminal lifestyles – brothers Corey Lal, 21, and Michael Lal, 26, and Edward Narong, 22, and Ryan Bartolomeo, 19 – were executed in typical gang-style fashion at Apartment 1505 of the Balmoral Towers at 9830 East Whalley Ring Road in Surrey on October 19, 2007.
Surrey Six co-accused Jamie Bacon, who is incarcerated, is being tried separately. He is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Corey Lal and, along with Haevischer and Johnston, conspiracy to commit murder in Lal’s death.
In November 2013 Michael (Quang Vinh Thang) Le, 28, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in the Surrey Six murder case. Initially, he had been charged with one count of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Consequently, a charge of first-degree murder for the murder of Corey Lal was stayed. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. But his term will be ending in less than a couple of years because he got double-time credit for pre-sentence custody since 2009. The Harper government has since done away with double-time credit.
