Christopher Fleig wanted to frame the gun used to kill one of his rivals in a gang-style shooting, a witness testified during his trial on Tuesday.
Fleig, 28, is being tried in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench before Justice Kirk Sisson. He is accused of arranging the gang-style shooting of an alleged rival. He is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and first-degree murder.
Brandon Neil Prevey, 29, was shot to death while seated at the wheel of his vehicle outside a house on Ibbotson Close in southeast Red Deer at about 3 a.m. on April 5, 2009.
A woman who was with him was not injured.
The alleged murder weapon, a nine-mm Glock 17, was admitted earlier into evidence and was handed to witness Ian Russell Hunt to examine during his testimony on Tuesday.
Hunt was on bail facing weapons charges at the time of the murder and was later arrested on charges of drug trafficking. He was sentenced to 66 months in prison after pleading guilty at age 24 to weapons and drug trafficking charges in Red Deer provincial court in November 2009, including two months credit for time served.
Hunt, who had worked at a shooting range in Edmonton, confirmed during his testimony on Tuesday that he had been a cocaine dealer within Fleig’s drug trafficking operation.
He said he saw the alleged murder weapon at Fleig’s house in Calgary a month or two before the killing and wanted to purchase it.
He said he would recognize the Glock again by the distinct markings on its magazine, which identified it as a high-capacity, government-issue version popular with law enforcement but not available to civilians.
Hunt was unable to confirm that the disabled weapon handed to him in court on Tuesday was the same one he had seen at Fleig’s house because the magazine was missing.
He said he wasn’t sure what the dispute was between Fleig and Prevey, but assumed it had something to do with the break-up of the Crazy Dragons, a gang to which they had both belonged.
Under cross-examination by Fleig’s lawyer, Allan Fay of Calgary, Hunt denied the he had cut a deal with police to get early parole. The parole board operates independently of the police and there were no police at the hearing in which his parole was approved, said Hunt.
He confirmed under questioning by Crown prosecutor Jason Snider that he and a fellow dealer met with Fleig in a Gasoline Alley parking lot a few hours after the shooting.
He said they then rode in Fleig’s pickup truck to a rural area nearby where they stopped to talk.
Hunt said he walked away from the conversation at one point because he didn’t want to know about the shooting and didn’t want to be involved.
In response to Snider’s question about the effect the shooting had on Fleig, Hunt said he had taken “ownership” of it, saying, “This is what happens when you f--- with us.”
Fleig later told Hunt that he thought he should get the gun framed.
Watching from the prisoner’s box, Fleig was more agitated on Tuesday than he had been during the five previous days of his trial.
He spoke out at times and at one point had to be shushed by his lawyer, whose desk became covered during the day with folded sheets of paper from the yellow pad Fleig was given to make notes.
The trial continues today with a voir dire to determine the admissibility of certain evidence.
The trial is scheduled to take five weeks.
bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com