Kellestine Found Guilty Of 8 Counts Of First-Degree Murder In Bandidos Slaying
Posted October 29, 2009 4:20 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Wayne Kellestine has been found guilty of eight counts of first-degree murder in the mass slaying of men associated with the Bandidos outlaw biker gang.
A jury in London, Ont., has also found Kellestine’s five co-accused guilty of numerous charges, including first-degree murder and manslaughter.
In all, the jury returned 44 counts of first-degree murder and four manslaughter convictions against the six men.
The verdicts come after less than two days of deliberations and follow a six-month trial that heard from more than 70 witnesses.
The bloodied bodies of eight men linked to the Toronto chapter of the Bandidos biker gang were found on April 8, 2006 stuffed into four vehicles abandoned in a farmer’s field in southwestern Ontario.
The scene was just kilometres away from Kellestine’s farmhouse, where the slaughter took place.
It’s believed to be Ontario’s largest mass slaying.
The Crown successfully argued that the murders were the result of rising tensions between the dead men and the probationary Bandidos chapter in Winnipeg.
Kellestine, a member of the Toronto chapter, had become increasingly alienated from his Toronto brothers and allied with the Winnipeg men.
Court heard he had received orders from U.S. Bandidos officials to strip the Toronto men of their gang affiliation and start a new Canadian chapter, but at some point in the days or hours leading up to the slaughter the plan changed to mass murder.
Killed that fateful night was George Jessome, 52, George Kriarakis, 28, John Muscedere, 48, Luis Raposo, 41, Frank Salerno, 43, Paul Sinopoli, 30, Jamie Flanz, 37, and Michael Trotta, 31.
The Crown’s case centred on testimony from MH, a man who is now an informant but was a member of the Winnipeg Bandidos and at Kellestine’s farmhouse the night of the killings.
