Jamie Bacon pleads not guilty at start of trial for counselling to commit murder

In March 2018, a young boy in the community of Mission found a rusty handgun in a creek near the site where Jamie Bacon allegedly tried to have a man killed nearly a decade earlier.

The weapon is now part of a trial in which the Crown hopes to convict Bacon of counselling a drug dealer to commit an associate's murder.

The trial kicked off in front of a B.C. Supreme Court jury Tuesday as prosecutor Keith Boland described the newly discovered handgun as a piece of a bigger picture that will be drawn to convince them of Bacon's guilt.

"Often evidence at trial is like pieces of a puzzle," Boland told the six men and six women tasked with determining Bacon's fate.

"And you as the triers of fact are the ones that are going to be asked to put them together and decide what it shows."

Key witnesses 'were criminals'

Bacon is accused of counselling someone to commit the murder of Dennis Karbovanec on New Year's Eve 2008.

Boland told the jury that at the time Bacon headed a "crew" that included Karbovanec and supplied the alleged shooter — CD — and another man involved in the plot — AB — with the drugs they needed to carry out their trade.

The prosecutor said testimony given by AB and CD — whose real names are protected by a publication ban — would be the cornerstone of the trial.

And he said both would explain why they had agreed to co-operate with police.

"Both [AB and CD] in 2008 were criminals. They engaged in drug trafficking, they used drugs, they participated in the violence that is often associated with that lifestyle," Boland said.

"I should tell you at the outset your findings of credibility and reliability with respect to both of these witnesses will likely be crucial to your eventual deliberation."

'Nothing else matters'

Bacon, who has pleaded not guilty, sat in the prisoner's dock of the high security courtroom, watching the proceedings with one leg crossed over the other. He appeared fit and muscular in a dark sweater and grey pants.

The frames of his glasses rested against a head of closely cropped hair.

In her instructions to the jury, Justice Catherine Wedge noted that Bacon had been tried for the crime before, but she did not explain the circumstances that led to a second trial.

She said that "what happened there has nothing to do with your decision ... nothing else matters and that includes what happened in the previous trial."

Boland said AB would testify that Bacon initially spoke with him in December 2008 about Karbovanec and some of the problems he was causing the crew. He said Bacon made it clear he wanted Karbovanec dead.

AB claimed he was surprised because the two were friends. He allegedly told Bacon he didn't want to be the person to carry out the killing, but CD's name emerged instead.

CD allegedly owed Bacon thousands of dollars for drugs and was offered the shooting as a way to clear the debt.

Co-operating witnesses

Boland said Karbovanec believed he was participating in what he thought would be a robbery from a grow operation on New Year's Eve. But when he and others arrived at the scene, CD emerged from a car, shooting.

The prosecutor said CD missed and the gun jammed, giving Karbovanec time to escape with a grazed head and a bullet lodged in his back.

CD allegedly threw the gun into the creek where prosecutors claim it was found 10 years later.

In addition to the discovery of the rusty weapon in 2018, Boland said the Crown would also provide evidence about spent bullets another child picked up in the street in the weeks after the alleged shooting.

CD was allegedly concerned about retaliation. And ​​​​​Boland said Bacon didn't want anyone to know that he was responsible — in part because Karbovanec was a good friend of his older brother's.

The prosecutor said CD eventually made his way to the U.S., where he was caught and served time for robbing a pharmacy. It was while he was in prison that Canadian police approached him about co-operating.

Boland said AB decided to co-operate in 2013 after becoming concerned that he was "considered a loose end" by others involved in a killing in which he allegedly provided the whereabouts of the victim.

The Crown expects to lead evidence about the agreements both men struck to become co-operating witnesses.

Boland said CD has been given immunity for his role in the alleged shooting. And AB will also not be charged.

The trial is expected to take three months.