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 Michael Sandham, middle, is led away in shackles from a plane by OPP Police officers in London, Ont., on Friday June 16, 2006. Three Winnipeg men with links to the notorious Bandidos biker gang - including Sandham, a former police officer - were charged Friday in the massacre of eight fellow gang members and associates in Ontario. (CP/Nathan Denette) |
Ex-cop Michael Sandham has portrayed himself as an unwilling dupe in a quickly cobbled-together plot to kill eight Bandidos.
But yesterday, on his fifth day in the witness box, it was suggested he was the one with the motivation to kill.
"What are they going to do when they find out you're a cop?" asked defence lawyer Michael Moon, who is cross-examining Sandham, 39. "You're a dead man. You're going to kill them over self-preservation."
Sandham's eyes reddened for a moment. "You're wrong about that, sir," he said,
Moon noted Sandham got over the crying "pretty fast."
The day was spent catching Sandham, on trial with five others of eight counts of first-degree murder, in a number of fictions from his time as a police officer until his arrest on eight counts of first-degree murder.
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Eight Toronto Bandidos were found shot to death April 8, 2006, their bodies stuffed in vehicles along a rural Elgin County road. The jury has heard they were shot at Wayne Kellestine's farm 14 kilometres away during a "patch pulling" to kick them out of the worldwide motorcycle club.
Moon hammered home all day that Sandham, who the jury has heard was president of the fledgling Winnipeg chapter, was more than willing to advance himself by lying and creating elaborate stories to get his way.
Sandham tried to sidestep many of the questions.
Sandham had been a police officer in East St. Paul, outside Winnipeg, from 2000 to 2002.
A newspaper article, Moon suggested, outed Sandham as a former cop now inside the Bandidos and that the Toronto chapter had discovered his secret.
Moon constructed a theory that had Sandham killing Bandidos Canada president John Muscedere and Luis (Chopper) Raposo before two Bandidos sent to Winnipeg killed him.
Moon said Sandham had allowed himself to be "bait" for the Toronto bikers once he was at Kellestine's Elgin County farm and was with Kellestine at a pay phone in Dutton to make a phone call and set up the meeting.
"For what? A patch on someone's back? I don't think so, sir," Sandham said.
The testimony also had its bizarre moments.
Sandham, a former member of the Canadian Armed Forces who served with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, boasted in a brochure he wrote for his security services and training he had guarded "Princess Patricia."
In the witness box, he was surprised to find out Princess Patricia died in 1974.
"I think you are thinking of a different Princess Patricia," Sandham -- with a perplexed look on his face -- said to Moon.
Sandham said he helped guard -- as secondary protection -- a 50-something woman who wore a full uniform and would inspect the troops and was not from Britain.
"You're catching me a little off-guard. I'm going to have to do some checking," he said.
The brochure said Sandham was a VIP-protection specialist and had guarded generals and former prime minister Brian Mulroney. He admitted there was "some padding" in his credentials.
The resume also boasted of tours of duty that never happened, one particularly to Bosnia.
Moon said Sandham has "a mindset, an ability to create fictions to advance your own cause." After a brief pause, Sandham agreed.
Jane Sims is The Free Press justice reporter.
jane.sims@sunmedia.ca
THE DEAD
George Jessome, 52; George Kriarakis, 28; Bandidos Canada national president John Muscedere, 48; Luis Raposo, 41; Toronto Bandidos chapter president Frank Salerno, 43; Paul Sinopoli, 30; Jamie Flanz, 37; and Michael Trotta, 31.
THE ACCUSED
Wayne Kellestine, 60, and Frank Mather, 35, of Dutton-Dunwich; Brett Gardiner, 25, of no fixed address; and Michael Sandham, 39, Marcelo Aravena, 33, and Dwight Mushey, 41, of Winnipeg have all pleaded not guilty to eight counts of first degree murder.