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Fleig testifies he heard shots, denies pulling the trigger

A Red Deer drug dealer accused of ordering the gangland-style execution of a man outside an Inglewood house three years ago said he was close enough to hear the shots but had nothing to do with the crime.

A Red Deer drug dealer accused of ordering the gangland-style execution of a man outside an Inglewood house three years ago said he was close enough to hear the shots but had nothing to do with the crime.

Christopher Martin Fleig, 28, testified in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench on Friday that another drug dealer and member of the Fresh Off The Boat gang, Pedro Julio Saenz, told him he pulled the trigger.

Fleig, who is charged with first-degree murder, said Saenz confessed to the crime as he was giving him a lift back to Calgary not long after Brandon Neil Prevey, 29, of Edmonton died in a hail of bullets outside an Inglewood home in the early morning hours of April 5, 2009.

Saenz told him the shooting was in retaliation for Prevey’s involvement in robbing a Fresh Off The Boat gang member two weeks before.

“He told me that he was executed,” said Fleig.

“I was very shocked.”

Fleig said Saenz described leaning out of another vehicle as far as he could and emptying his Glock handgun at Prevey, who was sitting in a parked Jeep Grand Cherokee. A woman passenger escaped without injury in the 3 a.m. shooting.

“He indicated to me that there were 15 shots fired,” said Fleig.

At the time, Fleig was parked on another street not far away with a drug associate, Christopher Lloyd Quinton, talking shop when he heard gunshots. The two were in the area to visit someone else.

Defence lawyer asked Fleig about Quinton’s testimony earlier in the trial that Fleig ordered someone to shoot over a two-way radio.

Fleig denied that, saying it would be “idiotic” to use a device like a walkie-talkie or two-way radio because it could be heard by any HAM radio operator or the police.

“That’s something I would not do,” he said. “Mr. Quinton is a liar.”

He also denied Quinton’s claim that Fleig later had asked him to dispose of a gun.

After hearing the shots and knowing police would soon follow, Fleig drove off, letting Quinton out along the way.

Not long after, he met up with Saenz and another drug trade connection, Christopher Ryan McIvor, in Gasoline Alley. They were in a black Pontiac Pursuit, the same kind of car identified by witnesses as being involved in the shooting. Saenz appeared to be fumbling with something in the passenger seat of the car parked next to a vacant lot. A gun connected to the shooting was later found during construction work in the area.

Fleig said Saenz made it clear in the drive back to Calgary that no word was to be spoken about what he was told to anyone or they and their families would be dead.

“That concerned me greatly,” said, adding McIvor knew where he and his family members lived.

“I took it quite literally.”

Fay asked his client if he had ever threatened to kill Quinton or his family. Fleig denied making any threats, saying he only repeated Saenz’s threat, which applied to Fleig as well.

Both Saenz and McIvor were originally charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the Prevey killing and an alleged plot to kill another man with drug ties, Nick Soto. The Crown stayed the charges against both men last year, as well as a third man, Brandon Cody Smith.

After the shooting, Fleig kept a lower profile because he assumed police suspected he had something to do with the murder.

By the fall of 2009, he was becoming increasingly paranoid. “I began to lose track with reality towards the end of that year.”

He said his mental health deteriorated the following year to the point where he believed he could control the weather and traffic lights and was undertaking increasingly risky behaviour including driving one of his vehicles at speeds up to nearly 300 km/h. He said he began to believe he was Agent Zero and part of a secret government organization to eliminate all crime.

After his arrest in March 2010 he spent a year in a Calgary psychiatric unit before being allowed in with the general prison population, he said. His mental state is now stable, he said.

Following Fleig’s testimony, Crown prosecutors Jason Snider and Tony Bell and Fleig’s lawyer had a lengthy in camera discussion about the scope of the upcoming Crown cross-examination. That will begin on Tuesday.

pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com