One of the men charged in connection with one of the biggest mass murders in B.C. history has pleaded guilty, but not to the killings.
Sophon Sek, 36, was charged with manslaughter and was allegedly with the men who carried out the murders at the Balmoral apartment tower in Surrey in October 2007.
But Sek pleaded guilty Friday afternoon in B.C. Supreme Court to a charge of break and enter to commit an indictable offense, while the manslaughter count was stayed.
He was sentenced to one year in jail with credit for 80 days already served. Sek’s currently in a six-year stint for drug and weapon offences, and his new sentence will be served once that’s through.
One year is the sentence Crown had requested, telling the court that Sek’s role in the murders was limited, but crucial.
Lawyers say Sek was paid $25,000 by the Red Scorpions gang to get them into Corey Lal’s apartment.
Crown said Sek never entered the suite where the six people were murdered and didn’t know about the murder plot. The court heard that Sek was shocked that innocent people were killed, and thought Lal would only be robbed.
They say Sek knocked on Lal’s door and the killers ran in when it opened.
Last year, two Red Scorpions’ gang members, Cody Haevicher and Matt Johnston, were handed mandatory life sentences with no chance of parole for 25 years for the murders.
Both men were found guilty of six counts of first-degree murder, and conspiracy.
They executed six people in that apartment, including two innocent bystanders: fireplace installer Ed Schellenberg and Christopher Mohan, who lived across the hall.
Eileen Mohan, Chris’s mother, read a victim impact statement in court Friday. She said even though Sek didn’t pull the trigger, he was responsible for the murders, and he would have to live with that.
The court proceedings are far from over in the gang killing case.
Jamie Bacon, the former head of the Red Scorpions gang, still hasn’t gone to trial for the killings. His trial has been postponed until October 2016, and the proceedings are expected to last between six and nine months.
Sek was arrested two days after winning $364,000 in the B.C. Poker Championships.
