A man sentenced to nine years in jail for his part in a 2016 drive-by shooting in Nanaimo intends to appeal his conviction.
Armaan Singh Chandi was arrested following the March 1, 2016 shooting in the Wakesiah Avenue/Jingle Pot Road area of Nanaimo. He was subsequently tried by Judge Robin Baird in B.C. Supreme Court in Nanaimo and found guilty of attempted murder using a restricted firearm, intentionally discharging a firearm recklessly, concealing his face while committing an indictable offence, dangerous driving and failing to stop for a peace officer.
Chandi was found guilty in February and sentenced in May, but on June 17, Richard Neary, a Victoria lawyer, filed a notice of appeal, on behalf of Chandi, with the B.C. Court of Appeal, stating he is appealing the convictions “in questions of law alone and involving mixed questions of law and fact.”
Chandi seeks to be acquitted of the charges of attempted murder, dangerous driving and failing to stop for police and seeks a new trial for the other counts.
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The appeal is grounded in the fact the “learned trial judge failed to properly consider and weigh all of the rational alternative inferences to guilt on the attempted murder count and rendered an unreasonable verdict on the driving counts,” the notice read.
Chandi was one of two men arrested following the shooting and a police car chase that spanned Cedar, Ladysmith and Duncan.
A Vancouver Island University international student was shot at, but not injured and during trial, it was revealed the student was innocent and not the intended target.
Inderpal Singh Aujla, the driver, pleaded guilty to use of a restricted firearm for attempted murder and fleeing from police prior to the trial and was sentenced separately to seven years in jail by Judge Ted Gouge in February in provincial court in Nanaimo.
As of Tuesday morning, a hearing date had not been set, but according to information from Supreme Court of B.C. communications, after “transcripts and appeal books are filed … the registrar will contact counsel to arrange for an agreed hearing date which falls within one year of the date the notice of appeal was filed.”
Neary was contacted, but has not yet provided comment.
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