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Even in the courtroom, the biker code ruled.
It could be seen in the alliances that lined up in the prisoners' dock.
It was a reason why some testified and some didn't.
And it was why, last week, two defence lawyers were fired by their clients the day after they'd given their closing addresses to the jury.
The jury, now deliberating the verdicts at the Bandidos trial, doesn't know Christopher Hicks, lawyer for Brett Gardiner, and Michael Moon, lawyer for Dwight Mushey, were discharged "for personal reasons," as the accused men said Oct. 21.
The jury began its deliberations yesterday morning, starting fresh after a full day Tuesday of law and a review of the evidence given to them by Superior Court Justice Thomas Heeney.
The jury is now sequestered, allowing the reporting of some of what the six men and six women did not see or hear during the marathon trial.
Last week appeared to be a bizarre time to remove a lawyer from the case. But for Mushey, a true-blue biker who honoured a code of silence, and his loyal underling and pal, Gardiner, it made perfect sense.
Both Moon and Hicks gave searing closing addresses that larded the responsibility for the shootings of eight Toronto Bandidos on Wayne Kellestine, calling him a psychotic, a psychopath, a monster. They said their clients were unwilling participants.
The next morning, the court's start was delayed almost two hours after Hicks and Moon asked for a recess.
When the judge returned, Mushey addressed the court. "For personal reasons I request I remove Michael Moon as my primary counsel."
Gardiner parroted the apology. "I'm going to be doing the same thing as Mushey here. I'm going to be removing Christopher Hicks as my counsel."
"Your reasons are what?" the judge asked.
"Personal reasons," Gardiner said.
Their lawyers had pinned the blame on Kellestine. Through their lawyers, they could be perceived in the outlaw biker world as rats. By firing their lawyers, they may have bought some protection under the biker code.
Kellestine's lawyer, Clay Powell, suggested if the lawyers didn't stay, the jury might think "Kellestine put a contract out on them."
Mushey, who was the Winnipeg Bandido chapter secretary-treasurer and second-in-command, had been Gardiner's sponsor into the club.
On March 26, 2006, Gardiner came to Kellestine's farm with his sponsor and the other Winnipeg Bandidos. His job on the night of April 8, 2006, the Crown has argued, was to listen to the police scanner while the ambush was carried out inside the barn.
jane.sims@sunmedia.ca