Alleged B.C. gangster upset at jail conditions
Reputed gangster and accused murderer Jamie Bacon attended a special B.C. Supreme Court hearing in Vancouver Monday, where his lawyer argued that Bacon's rights are being violated by his living conditions at a Surrey, B.C., jail while he awaits trial.
Bacon is charged along with three others with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the slayings of six people in a Surrey highrise in October 2007. Two of the victims were innocent bystanders, police said.
Bacon claims his constitutional rights are being violated because he's being held in solitary confinement, his mail is not being handled properly and visits and telephone access are too restrictive.
His lawyer, Kim Eldred, also said Bacon's cell is cold, he was given just one blanket with no pillow, and also that the cell was dirty, the walls apparently smeared with undetermined bodily fluids.
Bacon's trial is not scheduled to begin until September 2010, and Eldred is seeking to have him moved to another facility or Bacon might suffer "grave psychological harm," she said.
The mother of one of the six victims from the 2007 murders, Eileen Mohan, attended Monday's hearing.
Her son, Chris Mohan, was leaving his apartment to play basketball when he apparently stumbled on the murder scene and then was killed.
"What about our constitutional rights?" said Mohan during a break in proceedings.
"We families have lost our loved ones forever because of these thugs," she said.
Bacon is the only one of the four accused — all currently incarcerated at the Surrey Pre-Trial Centre — to apply to the court to be moved.
Four accused being held in isolation
B.C. Corrections officials have said that due to the recent gang war in the Lower Mainland, the four accused are being held in isolation for their own safety.
B.C. Corrections are scheduled to testify later at the four-day hearing.
The others charged in the six slayings are Michael Le, Cody Haevischer and Matthew Johnson.
A fifth man, Dennis Karbovanec, pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree murder earlier this year in the same incident and is serving a life sentence.