XPost: can.politics, van.general, alt.true-crime   
   From: gregcarrsober@gmail.com   
      
   Supporters of slain Kelowna dad Dain Phillips clapped loudly in court   
   Friday as three of four Hells Angels associates accused in the slaying   
   were found guilty of manslaughter.   
      
   The outburst came as B.C. Supreme Court Justice Mark McEwan found   
   accused Daniel McRae guilty of being a party to the June 2011 fatal   
   beating of Phillips, 51.   
      
   “Knock that off, I don’t want any more of that,” the judge sternly told   
   a packed Vancouver courtroom.   
      
   McEwan also found McRae’s brother, Matthew McRae, and a third man, Anson   
   Schell, guilty of manslaughter.   
      
   He acquitted Robert Cocks, a member of a support club of the notorious   
   motorcycle gang.   
      
   “We are very happy with the outcome and are looking forward to putting   
   this behind us,” said a statement released by the victim’s wife Jeannie   
   following the verdicts.   
      
   “We would like to commend the Kelowna RCMP and the Crown counsel team   
   for all their hard work and doing such an excellent job on a difficult   
   case.”   
      
   Cocks’s son, Norman Cocks, a full-patch member of the Hells Angels, and   
   Robert Thomas, another full-patch member, earlier pleaded guilty to the   
   manslaughter of Phillips.   
      
   Court heard that Norman Cocks and Thomas had severely beaten Phillips   
   using baseball bats and hammers following a petty dispute between the   
   McRae brothers and two of Dain Phillips’s sons.   
      
   The Crown’s theory was that the two McRae brothers, Schell and Cocks,   
   kicked Phillips while he was lying on the ground following the baseball   
   bat and hammer assault.   
      
   In his 60-page verdict, the judge said he couldn’t find that any of the   
   four men on trial had directly participated in the attack on Phillips.   
      
   Daniel McRae testified he thought there would just be a schoolyard fist   
   fight with Phillips’s sons, Kody and Kaylin, but the judge said he   
   didn’t believe him and did not think his evidence raised a reasonable doubt.   
      
   McEwan noted McRae had a “close friendship” of mutual interests with   
   Robert Cocks, and Cocks’s affiliation with the Hells Angels was well known.   
      
   “Mr. McRae clearly discussed his troubles with Kody Phillips with Mr.   
   Cocks. It is clear that he had advised Mr. Cocks of Kody’s habit of   
   suggesting he was associated, through his ‘boss,’ with the Hells Angels.”   
      
   The judge noted the testimony of a Hells Angels expert, who said the   
   Hells Angels would feel obliged to deal with anyone doing what Kody   
   Phillips was doing.   
      
   “Daniel McRae must have known the view Mr. Cocks would take of such   
   behaviour.”   
      
   McRae clearly aided in setting up the occasion for an assault and he was   
   no “mere bystander,” but exited a vehicle for the purpose of   
   participating in the attack, and with his friends, of lending the   
   strength of numbers to a criminal purpose, said the judge.   
      
   Applying the same legal tests in relation to Daniel McRae, the judge   
   found his brother Matthew also guilty of manslaughter.   
      
   McEwan found that the evidence against Schell was similar to that of   
   Matthew McRae and also found him guilty.   
      
   Despite Robert Cocks’s affiliations with the Hells Angels, the judge   
   said there was a “paucity” of evidence of his participation in any of   
   the planning or preparation for the fatal attack.   
      
   “I think the evidence of Mr. Cocks’s support for the Hells Angels might   
   have been corroborative if there were better evidence about his   
   activities before and at the scene.”   
      
   Outside court, Schell declined to comment.   
      
   “I read the lies that came out in your paper, so I’m good with that,”   
   Robert Cocks said outside court before walking away.   
      
   Cocks’s lawyer, Mitch Foster, called the verdict the “right result” and   
   added that the evidence was quite clear his client was not involved.   
      
   Crown counsel Joe Bellows called the judge’s verdict a “very thorough”   
   judgment and a reasonable result.   
      
   He said he had done some research on sentencing and the case law for the   
   type of offence the three men were convicted of seems to indicate that a   
   range of jail time of three to five years is appropriate. Sentencing is   
   set for Sept. 22. The three convicted men remain on bail.   
      
   kfraser@theprovince.com   
      
   twitter.com/keithrfraser   
      
      
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