A man accused of organizing the death of Sanjeev Mann at the Bolsa Restaurant in 2009 has been found not guilty of first-degree murder by a Calgary jury.
Nick Chan was charged with murder in connection to the death of Mann who was shot and killed in a gang-related shooting on New Year’s Day along with associate Aaron Bendle and innocent bystander, Kenny Su’a.
The Crown’s star witness in the case, known only as G.H., testified that Chan ordered Mann’s death.
G.H. and a number of other gang members were given deals in exchange for their testimony in the case.
“I don’t think that it should be lightly forgotten that two of the other shooters involved in this particular crime entered guilty pleas, a number of cases were closed as a result of those immunity deals, I would hope that the public would keep that in mind when they’re analyzing the decisions that were made,” said prosecutor Adam May.
The jury deliberated for five hours before returning a not guilty verdict on Tuesday.
“We knew that this was a possibility that a not guilty verdict could come back. We put the best case forward that we could in front of the jury, they didn’t agree with our framing of the evidence but we respect the verdict,” said May.
Calgary police issued a statement on the verdict saying…
“The Calgary Police Service respects the decision of the jury in the case of Nicholas Chan.
As Mr. Chan is currently before the courts on other matters, the CPS is unable to comment further on this issue.”
Chan is expected back in court in October of 2017 on other charges.
