XPost: alt.true-crime, can.politics, van.general   
   From: gregcarrsober@gmail.com   
      
   Two Hells Angels plead guilty in Kelowna beating death   
      
   For the first time since the Hells Angels started in B.C. in 1983, two   
   full-patch members have been convicted of killing someone   
      
   BY KIM BOLAN, VANCOUVER SUNJANUARY 31, 2014 9:42 AM   
      
      
      
      
   Accused son and father killers Norm Cocks, 31, and Robert Cocks, 52, are   
   featured in this photo. Norman Cocks and Robert Thomas, both with the   
   Kelowna chapter of the biker gang, pleaded guilty to manslaughter today   
   before Associate Chief Justice Austin Cullen.   
      
   For the first time since the Hells Angels were founded in B.C. in 1983,   
   two full-patch members have been convicted of killing someone.   
      
   Kelowna Hells Angels Norman Cocks and Robert Thomas pleaded guilty to   
   manslaughter Thursday in a beating that left family man Dain Phillips   
   dead in June 2011.   
      
   It’s another blow for the notorious biker gang, which has been hit with   
   undercover operations that have led to arrests and convictions against   
   several members and associates in recent years.   
      
   Cocks, 33, and Thomas, 49, were originally charged with second-degree   
   murder, but agreed to a plea on the lesser charge.   
      
   Each stood before B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Austin   
   Cullen wearing red prison garb and said they were not guilty of murder,   
   but “guilty to the included offence of manslaughter.”   
      
   They will be sentenced Wednesday.   
      
   Prosecutor Joe Bellows told Cullen that Crown and defence would make a   
   joint sentencing submission.   
      
   “The Crown will be alleging a record with respect to Mr. Thomas,”   
   Bellows said. “There will be no criminal record to allege with respect   
   to Mr. Cocks.”   
      
   Phillips, 51, died while attempting to resolve a dispute between his two   
   youngest sons and some of their old high school acquaintances.   
      
   He agreed to attend a meeting on McCurdy Road outside Kelowna about 7   
   p.m. on June 12, 2011.   
      
   Instead of a discussion to resolve the dispute, he was attacked by a   
   group of people who arrived in two vehicles and beat him with hammers   
   and baseball bats.   
      
   Cocks and Thomas were among seven people originally charged with murder   
   in Phillips’s death.   
      
   The charge against accused Thomas Vaughan was later stayed.   
      
   Four others — Cocks’s father Robert, the president of the Throttle   
   Lockers biker gang, brothers Daniel and Matt McRae and Anson Schell —   
   are set to go to trial beginning next week.   
      
   Robert Cocks, who remains on bail, sat in the public gallery with his   
   lawyer to watch his son plead guilty.   
      
   Outside the courtroom, lawyer Joe Doyle, who represents the younger   
   Cocks, noted that both his client and Thomas were acquitted of the more   
   serious murder charge.   
      
   Both Cocks and Thomas have been in custody since their arrest in July 2011.   
      
   Doyle said his client is expected to get 2.5 years credit at straight   
   time for his pre-trial custody.   
      
   Thomas’s lawyer Greg DelBigio declined to comment to reporters.   
      
   Hells Angels spokesman Rick Ciarniello did not respond to an emailed   
   request for comment Thursday.   
      
   The biker gang is challenging the constitutionality of the B.C.   
   government’s civil forfeiture laws after the director of civil   
   forfeiture filed claims against the Kelowna, East Vancouver and Nanaimo   
   clubhouses, alleging links to criminality.   
      
   No members of Phillips’s family were in court for the guilty pleas,   
   though several sheriffs and police were present for the brief appearance.   
      
   After the beating, Phillips was left at the side of the road, critically   
   wounded and unconscious in a pool of his blood. He died later in hospital.   
      
   Phillips, a father of three sons and a grandfather of three, lived on a   
   disability pension with his wife and young grandson. He had no criminal   
   history.   
      
   At 6-3, Phillips was a right-winger in the Western Hockey League from   
   1978 to 1980, playing with ex-NHL goaltender Kelly Hrudey in Medicine   
   Hat and Dallas Stars coach Lindy Ruff in Lethbridge.   
      
   In his obituary, Phillips was remembered as “a hard-working man with a   
   lust for life.”   
      
   “He was a family man in every sense of the term. Dad served his family   
   with all of his huge heart up until the minute he died,” said the   
   obituary, published in The Sun and Province.   
      
   “His legacy is his sons and the values he instilled in them, and the   
   heart he taught everyone around him to live their lives with. He will be   
   longingly missed by all and forever be in our hearts.”   
      
   kbolan@vancouversun.com   
      
   My blog: vancouversun.com/therealscoop   
      
   Follow me: @KBolan   
      
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