XPost: can.politics, van.general, alt.true-crime   
   XPost: rec.motorcycles   
   From: ppeters@sjrb.ca   
      
   In article    
   Greg Carr  wrote:   
   >   
   > 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.   
      
   Those men were railroaded!   
      
   > 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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