Wearing a mask and sunglasses, the head of Vancouver Island’s outlaw motorcycle club the Devil’s Army leaves the Victoria courthouse, on this first day of his trial.
Ricky Alexander is charged with the premeditated murder of 30-year-old John Dillon Brown.
Brown, a construction worker, low-level drug dealer and MMA fighter, was shot and killed in the Devil’s Army Clubhouse in Campbell River on March 11th, 2016.
His body was found 75 kilometres north of the crime scene, near the one-way bridge to Sayward in the trunk of his abandoned Honda the next day.
“I noticed there was the window down a little bit and I thought, gee that’s kinda weird the window’s down and it’s raining,” Sayward resident Cheryl McMillan told CHEK News in March of 2016.
The Crown says the murder was set into motion months before — in November of 2015 — when a group of Hells Angels came to visit the Devil’s Army.
They were at the Voodoo Lounge nightclub in Campbell River when a fight broke out.
Brown’s girlfriend, who he lived with in Victoria, was the first witness to take the stand.
“He said a bunch of guys had gone after him,” an emotional Nicole Hunt told the court, breaking down. “He just said a bunch of guys had gone after him and he had to fight them all.”
Hunt, who was pregnant with his child at the time of Brown’s death, described visiting him in hospital
“His face was pretty swollen,” Hunt testified. “He had teeth loose, damage to his face and mouth.”
Brown obtained surveillance video of the fight, which Hunt says showed several people attacking him, and filed a lawsuit against the club.
In their opening statement, the Crown said Ricky Alexander called Brown to settle out of court.
But instead of giving him money, the Crown alleges Alexander shot Brown in the back of the head and then dumped the body.
Court was told a former Devil’s Army member, who recently left the Royal Canadian Navy, will testify that he helped Alexander move the body and clean up the crime scene.
Crown says another key witness, who lives near where the car was found, will testify that Alexander approached him for a ride and he drove him back to Campbell River.
None of these allegations have been proven in court.
30-year-old John Dillon Brown, a construction worker, low-level drug dealer and MMA fighter, was shot and killed in the Devil’s Army Clubhouse in Campbell River on March 11, 2016.
Tess van Straaten
