news Threats, ominous hints, and serenade form wiretap evidence at Bandidos trial

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Threats, ominous hints, and serenade form wiretap evidence at Bandidos trial


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By Michael Oliveira, The Canadian Press

LONDON, Ont. - Threats over outstanding debts, ominous hints about a "very important" meeting, and a serenaded warning about the time being "now or never" were intercepted by police in the days and hours before eight bodies were found in rural southwestern Ontario, court heard Tuesday.
The jury at the trial of six men charged in Ontario's largest ever mass slaying - the alleged first-degree murders of eight people connected to the Bandidos outlaw motorcycle club - heard a sequence of 28 phone calls that were gleaned from more than 60,000 that police eavesdropped on in the weeks leading up to the bloodbath.
The intercepts, dubbed "the victims' trip to the farm for a meeting" by the Crown, document increasingly insistent demands that several men attend a club meeting on April 7, 2006.
Early the next day, police found the victims' bodies stuffed in four vehicles in a farmer's field near Shedden, Ont.
Caught numerous times on tape was victim Paul Sinopoli, who complained in several calls of stomach pain and tried to talk his way out of going to "church," the meeting at Wayne Kellestine's farm.
"We just call it that because we meet once a week," he said of the group's meetings in one of the intercepted calls.
When Sinopoli told fellow victim Jamie Flanz that he planned to stay home on April 7, 2006, the response was a long silence.
Flanz finally let out a troubled, "oooh," and suggested that maybe Sinopoli should go out and also see a Tragically Hip cover band that was playing that night.
But Sinopoli insisted he couldn't go.
"I can't move, bro," he said.
Sinopoli also asked Flanz to gauge the anger of another victim, John (Boxer) Muscedere, who was apparently tiring of his complaints.
Flanz tried to put his friend's mind at ease and said, "They're always sayin' the same thing all the time, nothing ever happens."
In less than two hours, Sinopoli would receive a call telling him that Muscedere was "freaking out" and that his attendance at the farm was mandatory.
"Bro, uh, Boxer's freaking out, bro. You're on your last legs, you're almost out the door. So if I was you I'd get yourself to ... church tonight," said another victim, Frank (Bam Bam) Salerno, who also warned Sinopoli to bring money he owed to the meeting.
"You better bring it. Don't come there empty-handed, brother, and don't bother phonin' him and telling him you're sick.
"I'm telling you what to do. If you don't want to listen to me, that's your problem. Don't come crying to me after."
In another call with an unidentified man, Sinopoli is told: "It's very important everyone's there, so ... call everybody, tell 'em it's very important."
Sinopoli confirmed with Kellestine that he would attend but said he might be late for the 7 p.m. meeting.
Kellestine pressured him to hurry up, saying there were people awaiting his arrival, and confused the younger Sinopoli by breaking out into song.
"There's just some people passing through town right now. They're not going to be around for much longer. ... They're kind of (in a) hurry to get going. So we have two options. There's an old Roy Orbison song, 'It's Now or Never,"' Kellestine says, before starting to sing.
"'Hold me close, kiss me, you homely little bastard, be mine tonight."'
Resigned to having no choice but to attend, Sinopoli called a woman identified only as Stephanie, who court heard was involved with his drug dealings.
He spoke of his need to go the farm and a meeting she would soon have.
"These people aren't going to beat me up, are they?" she said with a nervous laugh.
He assured her that wouldn't happen.
The wiretaps end with a call around 10:18 p.m. as Flanz arrived at his destination and the meeting was presumably about to begin.
Flanz asked Muscedere to stay on the line before he entered the meeting, but the wiretaps don't capture what happened next.
The explosive evidence came as a result of another investigation into the December 2005 death of drug dealer Shawn Douse, which resulted in penitentiary terms for four men connected to the Bandidos.
Police sought taps on the phones of 14 primary and 15 secondary targets for that investigation, but ended up catching clues about the eight murders, which the Crown has characterized as an internal cleansing of the Bandidos.
None of the six accused had their lines tapped, but two of the victims did, as did others associated with the Bandidos.
Kellestine and his associates all knew not to talk too freely on the phone and spoke frequently in code, referring to others as "the old man," "other friend," and other pseudonyms.
As he signed off in a call with Sinopoli, Kellestine asked him to "keep the phone calls down to a minimum, please and thank you."
The jury was back in court Tuesday after a week off, and Justice Thomas Heeney gave jurors further instructions based on the Crown's opening statement.
Heeney reminded the jury that the opening was not evidence and only a set of allegations.
He also said the jury should come to its decision without prejudice or sympathy for any of the accused.