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‘Coincidence’ accused in killing was nearby night of shooting

Coincidence not murder brought him to the same Inglewood neighbourhood where a rival drug dealer was gunned down in the middle of the night nearly three years ago, testified the Red Deer man charged with ordering the gangland hit.

Coincidence not murder brought him to the same Inglewood neighbourhood where a rival drug dealer was gunned down in the middle of the night nearly three years ago, testified the Red Deer man charged with ordering the gangland hit.

Under cross examination from Crown Prosecutor Jason Snider, Christopher Martin Fleig, 28, testified he was nearby to watch a movie at a friend’s house.

Fleig denied Snider’s suggestion he needed to be close to the murder scene because of the “crappy” walkie talkies he is accused of using to order the death of Brandon Neil Prevey, 29, as he sat in his car on April 5, 2009.

Fleig is on trial for first-degree murder in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench.

“They never existed,” said Fleig of the walkie talkies a drug dealing accomplice had earlier testified that Fleig used to order the shooting of Prevey about 3 a.m.

In his drug business the always-cautious Fleig said he relied on $2,000 Blackberrys with the speakers removed to avoid police tracing his calls.

When making deals, he used encrypted emails using a Panama-based server out of the reach of Canadian and U.S. authorities.

To suggest he used a walkie talkie is a joke and “an insult to my character as a drug dealer,” he told Snider.

He also denied knowing that Prevey was going to be murdered that night, despite telling police in a statement he knew the drug dealer was a target for murder.

Fleig testified he said that because that is what the Fresh Off The Boat gang did to those who crossed them. Prevey was apparently wanted for robbing a gang member two weeks earlier.

Fleig was also questioned closely about his actions the night of the murder. He had earlier testified he met two other men he knew from the drug business in Gasoline Alley a short time after the shooting. He drove one of them, Pedro Julio Saenz, backed to Calgary and Saenz told him he was the shooter.

Snider questioned why Fleig would give a ride to a man he had met only a few times and he suspected of being involved in a shooting and was carrying a bag with unknown contents.

“I didn’t think about it. I just wanted to get the hell out of town,” said Fleig.

Snider suggested Fleig didn’t mind offering the other man a lift because Fleig had arranged the whole shooting.

“No, absolutely not,” he said.

Fleig had testified during the trial that Saenz threatened the lives of him and his family if he told anyone that Saenz had been the shooter.

Why then, asked Snider, did Fleig organize a meeting with several of his drug dealing connections the next day to ignore Saenz’s warning and tell them all about his role.

Fleig said he felt it was his obligation to warn the others.

The Crown stayed first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder charges against Saenz in March 2011.

Snider and defence lawyer Allan Fay will deliver their closing arguments to Justice Kirk Sisson today.

pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com