For eighteen months, she has agonized over her son's final moments. On Thursday, Eileen Mohan finally found out what happened in that Surrey apartment when Chris and five other men were murdered. Now she is speaking out about seeing her son's killer in court.
Last week, Dennis Karbovanec pleaded guilty to three of the murders including Christopher Mohan's. On Thursday, he was sentenced to life in prison, with no chance of parole for a minimum of 15 years.
Eileen Mohan spoke to CTV News on Friday about what it was like to be in the same courtroom with the man who admitted to killing her son.
"I just couldn't look at him,'' she said. "It's very hard for me to look at him knowing everything that I know now,'' she said.
The court heard a statement of fact from Karbovanec about what happened in the Surrey high-rise apartment where Chris Mohan and the other men died.
Chris Mohan and Ed Schellenberg died because they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
A publication ban prevents CTV and other news organizations from revealing details of the evidence that was presented in court. But Mohan heard everything.
"I just shut my eyes. All I could see is my son right there,'' she said.
"The way they're describing everything, my heart was just shaking. I don't know how my son took it. It was very very difficult to listen to all the details."
After Thursday's sentencing hearing, B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm slammed politicians and community leaders who have been critical of the courts.
He said "the courts are doing the very best they can and it's not particularly helpful for individuals presuming to be in a position of authority to be arousing the public into believing something is wrong with the system."
But a relative of one of the other victims doesn't see it that way.
The brother in law of Ed Schellenberg -- the other innocent bystander who was killed in the Surrey apartment -- says the current gang war is proof the system is failing.
"It's the judges who need to answer to all these plea bargains, these conditional sentences for these psychopaths being out on the streets who should be detained,'' said Steve Browne.
Three other men have been charged in the Surrey Six case. The roster includes two men, who are also charged with Chris Mohan's murder. His mom will be in court, every step of the way.
"I have to be Christopher's voice,'' she said." I want to see this through right to the end."
With a report by CTV British Columbia's Shannon Paterson
