Brandon Nathan Teixeira, the man arrested in California on Sunday for the murder of Nicholas Khabra in South Surrey, was motivated to kill by revenge and an alleged $160,000 bounty, according to U.S. District Court documents.
The documents, filed Dec. 2, allege that Teixeira did not act alone in planning the killing, which occurred Oct. 23, 2017, in the 14300-block of Crescent Road.
As well, they disclose aliases that the 28-year-old is alleged to have used leading up to the shooting – including the name Ryan Provencher – the same name as one of two South Surrey men found dead near Ashcroft in August. At the time their bodies were discovered, police said the men’s deaths likely “involved criminality.”
READ MORE: Bodies of two missing Surrey men found near Ashcroft: RCMP
Integrated Homicide Investigation Team Sgt. Frank Jang said Wednesday he could not comment on when or under what circumstances Teixeira may have used the name Provencher, as the matter is before the courts.
However, investigators are “100 per cent” certain that Teixeira is indeed the man who was arrested, he said.
“We have our man. It is not Ryan. I’m not sure what that connection is,” Jang said.
A first-degree murder charge against Teixeira was announced in September 2018.
Jang shared news of Teixeira’s “dynamic” arrest on Monday afternoon (Dec. 2). It followed an anonymous tip that pointed U.S. authorities to a residence in Oroville, Calif., a small city north of Sacramento.
READ MORE: Fugitive in South Surrey murder arrested in California: IHIT
Jang told Peace Arch News Wednesday that Teixeira’s violent attempts to elude capture that day – including reportedly ramming an armoured police vehicle – highlight the threat he posed while at-large.
“When we say he was a danger to the public, he really was. He put all of those officers’ lives at risk,” Jang said.
According to the U.S. court documents, the warrant for Teixeira’s arrest in Canada was issued in part on the basis of statements from two witnesses.
“Witness A” called police to report that she and her boyfriend, “N.K.,” had been shot, the documents state, adding that police found N.K. dead from “multiple gunshot wounds,” and located Witness A nearby, also suffering from gunshot wounds.
Witness A then told police she had been with N.K. and a person she knew as “Kobe” that evening; that she knew “Kobe” as a friend of N.K.; and that she “saw ‘Kobe’ holding a gun and firing it at N.K., while Witness A was sitting in her car and while ‘Kobe’ and N.K. were standing outside the car and talking,” the documents state.
“Kobe” is listed in the documents as one of Teixeira’s aliases.
The documents note that Witness A then identified a photo of Teixeira, who she knew as “Kobe,” as the man who shot N.K.
“Witness B” told police “that he had participated with Teixeira in the planning for, and prepartion of, N.K.’s murder,” the court documents state.
The witness also alleged that Teixeira told him that he wanted to kill N.K. because Teixeira believed that N.K. had set him up for an earlier shooting incident. A $160,000 contract for the murder of N.K. “further motivated Teixeira to kill N.K.,” the witness alleged.
Further, Witness B alleged that Teixeira had planned to use his roommate’s Jeep during the shooting, while burning a second black Jeep nearby, “in an attempt to deceive police as to which vehicle was used during the murder.”
The roommate is identified in the documents as “R.P.”
The court documents note that Teixeira’s aliases were “corroborated by information found on several phones that were seized by police during the execution of a search warrant on November 3, 2017.”
As well, it’s alleged that R.P.’s name was used to rent a black Jeep Compass from Oct. 1-24, 2017, and that forensic analysis determined blood found in its interior matched Teixeira’s DNA.
According to minutes from a Dec. 2 court proceeding in California, Teixeira’s lawyer told the court “her client wishes to be returned to Canada as soon as possible.”
Jang said if Teixeira is extradited, a trial on the first-degree murder charge “is not going to happen for a while.”
A “status conference” regarding extradition proceedings is set for Dec. 23.
tholmes@peacearchnews.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
