The evidence obtained from a Blackberry smartphone and sim card can be used in the trials of two men charged with gang-affiliated murder.
An application to remove the evidence obtained by a warrant was denied on Thursday, March 2 by Justice Allan Betton, in Kelowna Supreme Court.
Cory Vallee is charged with the first-degree murder of Kevin LeClair.
Jason McBride is charged with the first-degree murder of Jonathan Bacon, a friend of LeClair’s, in 2011.
The gangland-style slaying of the Red Scorpions leader, Jonathan Bacon, shook Kelowna in 2011.
Gunmen opened fire on the Porsche Cayenne driven by Bacon while it was departing the Delta Grand Hotel on Aug. 14, 2011 – a brazen and public daylight shooting.
Vallee’s murder trial is being held in Vancouver. His legal team argued to Supreme Court Justice Janice Dillon that the smartphone and sim card were inadmissible due to what lawyers argued was an improperly obtained warrant.
As the same legal argument was raised in the McBride case, a rare joint court proceeding was conducted in Kelowna to determine the admissibility of the phone and its contents in both murder trials.
Justice Dillon ordered that Justice Betton would determine whether the warrant for the phone violated their rights.
Betton determined the warrant had not and therefore the evidence is admissible for both trials.
