Trial for high-profile bikers begins
Oct 27, 2008 - 03:20 PM
By Jeff Mitchell
WHITBY -- When two high-ranking Hells Angels officers decided an underworld rival had to be assassinated, they thought they'd found the perfect hitman in a fellow biker -- but that man was actually a police agent, a prosecutor told jurors at the beginning of a trial Monday.
Durham Crown Attorney John Scott told jurors they'll hear evidence that the men on trial, Mark Stephenson and Remond Akleh, conspired to kill rival Frank Lenti and counselled another biker, Stephen Gault, to do the deed.
Mr. Scott told jurors they'll hear testimony from Mr. Gault, a man who has worked as an agent for police since 2005, that he had discussions with both men about a plot to murder Mr. Lenti.
In his opening address to jurors Mr. Scott said evidence will show Mr. Gault, a full-patch member of the Oshawa chapter of the Hells Angels, appeared to the accused men to be "the perfect, trusted guy" based on his lengthy criminal resume of violent offences.
"The one piece they didn't know? He'd (Mr. Gault) signed on in April of 2005 as a police agent," Mr. Scott said, telling jurors they'll hear recorded conversations of Mr. Gault meeting with Mr. Stephenson, president of the Oshawa chapter, and Mr. Akleh, a member of the Angels' elite Nomads organization.
Those conversations occurred at Mr. Stephenson's home near Sunderland and at Mr. Akleh's Cobourg-area home, jurors heard.
The Crown alleges that Mr. Akleh and Mr. Stephenson approached Mr. Gault in June of 2006 with a plan to kill Mr. Lenti, a man with a lengthy history of involvement in outlaw biker gangs. The Angels had failed in attempts to recruit Mr. Lenti and feared his association with the Bandidos -- bitter enemies of the Hells Angels -- would result in competition for their criminal enterprises, including the drug trade, Mr. Scott said.
"Frank Lenti was seen as a threat," Mr. Scott said. "Frank Lenti . . . was someone who could bring people together."
The murder plot was never acted on and Mr. Stephenson and Mr. Akleh were arrested in September of 2006 along with several other bikers in a provincewide strike against the Hells Angels. The majority of those arrested as a result of Project Tandem were busted on drug charges, many of them on the strength of evidence provided by Mr. Gault, Mr. Scott said. In fact, the alleged murder plot arose while Mr. Gault was acting as a police agent, buying cocaine from bikers, he said.
"This (alleged murder plot) just came along, out of the blue," Mr. Scott told jurors.
The first witness called to the stand was Sergeant Kenneth Davis of Thunder Bay police, a member of the provincial Biker Enforcement Unit and an acknowledged expert on biker gangs.
The trial, presided over by Superior Court Justice Bruce Glass in Whitby, continues.
Recommend :