Abbotsford gangster Jamie Bacon is appealing his recent weapons conviction. His lawyer is arguing weapons seized in the investigation were wrongfully seized and shouldn't have been entered as evidence.

 

Photograph by: Abbotsford Times, File photo

A lawyer for notorious gangster Jamie Bacon argued Friday that a judge wrongly admitted at trial firearms seized by police from a secret compartment in a vehicle.

In December 2010, Bacon was sentenced in B.C. Provincial Court to seven years in jail in connection with a series of weapons-related charges.

He had challenged at trial the admissibility of the evidence against him - four handguns and ammunition found in a vehicle frequently driven by him - following a shooting incident at the Bacon home in Surrey in April 2007.

Bacon, who was shot but not seriously injured in the shooting, argued his rights were violated when police executed a search warrant on the Chevrolet Suburban.

The judge concluded that while it was technically a warrantless search, it was not a serious enough violation to exclude the evidence against him.

She went on to convict Bacon but acquit his brother, Jarrod.

On appeal, Bacon's lawyer, David Layton, argued that the judge had made a number of errors in her assessment of the Charter violation.

He told a three-member panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal that the judge had misunderstood the seriousness of the breach.

Layton argued that allowing the evidence would have an adverse effect on the public's confidence in the administration of justice.

He also submitted that the judge had made a number of errors in her conviction of the accused.

Layton's arguments came under close scrutiny by the panel, which peppered him with questions.

Crown counsel Peter Hogg told the panel that the judge had made no such errors.

He pointed out the seriousness of the circumstances, in which police arrived on the scene "where literally the sounds of gunfire had just died" and the smell of gun smoke was in the air.

"Here, the guns, in this set of circumstances, they should be admitted in evidence."

Layton was expected to make a short reply Friday afternoon, following which the panel was expected to reserve judgment.

Bacon is awaiting trial in the Surrey Six murder case. Jarrod Bacon, recently convicted of conspiracy to traffic in cocaine, is to be sentenced on April 27. Last summer, a third Bacon brother, Jonathan, was gunned down in a gangland slaying in Kelowna.

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