Three men, including 30 year-old Michael Kerry Hunter Jones, formerly of Gibsons, have pleaded guilty in the shooting that left gang leader Jonathan Bacon dead and four others injured.
Jones, Jujhur Khun-Khun of Surrey and Jason Thomas McBride of North Vancouver were originally charged with one count each of first-degree murder and four counts of attempted murder after Bacon was gunned down outside a Kelowna hotel on August 14, 2011.
Under a deal negotiated between Crown prosecutors and defence lawyers, Jones entered a guilty plea Tuesday in Kelowna Supreme Court to the lesser charge of conspiracy to commit murder.
Khun-Khun also pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge, while McBride admitted to second-degree murder and attempted murder.
An agreed statement of facts was submitted to the judge in the case, and after the court proceedings Crown prosecutors also released security camera footage of the shooting. It shows Jones driving a grey Ford Explorer into the entrance of the Delta Grand Hotel and pulling up beside a white Porsche SUV, and the chaos that followed as the passengers in the Ford opened fire on the Porsche and bystanders scrambled for cover.
After adjourning on Tuesday, the judge came back Wednesday morning to accept a joint sentencing recommendation that called for Jones to get a prison term of 18 years, which would work out to 10 years after credit for time already served awaiting trial. Khun-Khun got the same sentence. McBride received a life sentence with parole eligibility in 18 years.
Dan McLaughlin, the communications counsel for the Prosecution Service, told Coast Reporter in an email, “The resolution in the case was arrived at following extensive discussion between the Crown and the defence and considerable reflection by the Crown on the strengths and weakness of the case as well as the public interest in a just result.”
