Jury in biker trial hears wiretaps
Nov 18, 2008 - 06:04 PM
By Jeff Mitchell
WHITBY -- The conversation ran from mundane to murder when a police agent met with a high-ranking Hells Angel to discuss dealing with an underworld rival, a jury has been told.
Crown witness Steven Gault testified Tuesday he and Mark Stephenson alternated between talk of biker colleagues and clearing felled brush to whispers about assassinating Frank Lenti when they met at Mr. Stephenson's Sunderland home in the summer of 2006.
Mr. Gault has been testifying since last Wednesday in the trial of Mr. Stephenson, president of the Oshawa Hells Angels chapter, and Remond Akleh, a member of the Angels' elite Nomads branch. The men have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to commit murder and counselling to commit murder.
Mr. Gault, 35, has testified he was already acting as a police agent, gathering information on drug dealing among bikers, when he was approached in June 2006 by Mr. Akleh and Mr. Stephenson with the plot to eliminate Mr. Lenti, whose ties with the rival Bandidos crew were causing concern among Hells Angels in Ontario. The witness said he was wearing a concealed recording device supplied by police when he visited Mr. Stephenson's house in July 2006.
On the recording the men are heard talking about removing brush from the property and discussing issues related to the club, including one biker's cocaine habit and another's difficulties making payments on his motorcycle. At times their voices drop and are inaudible; that, Mr. Gault testified, was when they talked about the murder conspiracy.
"We started whispering -- we were talking about Lenti again," he said.
Mr. Gault -- at one point on the tape played in the Whitby courtroom he's heard saying, "Bam, bam, bam, bam!" -- said he told Mr. Stephenson the best way to carry out to the job was to carefully target Mr. Lenti, rather than spraying bullets and "not doing it right."
"The topic at this point is what?" Crown counsel Mitchell Flagg asked.
"Killing Frank Lenti," Mr. Gault replied.
Mr. Lenti's name wasn't mentioned on the tapes played for jurors; neither were any overt references to a murder plot.
The trial, presided over by Superior Court Justice Bruce Glass, continues.
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