Jury deliberations in Kane Carter murder trial heading into fifth day

A court sketch of alleged murderer Kane Carter is shown.

Jury deliberations in the murder trial of a man accused of fatally shooting a rival gang member and an innocent teen passerby in 2018 will enter a fifth day Tuesday.

Twenty-eight-year-old Kane Carter is charged with the second-degree murders of 15-year-old Alfred Wong and 23-year-old Kevin Whiteside during an incident near Broadway and Ontario Street in Vancouver.

Crown prosecutors believe on the evening of Jan. 13, 2018, Carter was the lone occupant of a burgundy Pontiac Montana van parked south of the intersection  with the intent to protect his associate Matthew Navas-Rivas, who was at Indochine restaurant.

The Crown says as Navas-Rivas and his girlfriend left the restaurant, Whiteside opened fire at around 9:16 p.m., shooting several rounds at them. Prosecutors believe that’s when Carter, from the van, fired at Whiteside, killing both him and Wong, who was riding in the back seat of his parents' car as they drove along Broadway.

Carter’s defence lawyer Richard Fowler highlighted what he described as significant gaps in time in the Crown’s theory.

Fowler also mentioned that the three bullet casings later found in the van were linked to a gun used in a September 2017 shooting in Vancouver, while Carter was living in Ontario

During her final instructions to the jury, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge explained that even though the Crown does not believe Carter intended to harm or kill Wong, within the criminal code there is the “transferred intent rule,” which holds that when one’s intention to harm one person inadvertently causes another to person to be hurt, the person who caused the harm will still be held responsible.

Wedge told them that if they find that Carter did commit the second-degree murder of Whiteside, they must also convict him for the second-degree murder of Wong.

Wedge also gave the group the option to convict Carter of the lesser offence of manslaughter if they felt the Crown had proven all elements except for the intent to kill.