JUDGE LETS ADMITTED KILLER OFF HOOK

Crown Prejudiced a Potential Witness, Dope Dealer's Lawyer Says

A dope dealer who admitted he killed his drug boss had a murder
charge against him stayed in B.C. Supreme Court Wednesday.

It was a case of second-time-lucky for Anton Hooites-Meursing, who
says he shot gangster John Lahn three years ago in self-defence.
Earlier this year, a mistrial was declared after a jury said it could
not reach a verdict.

Justice Mary Humphries ordered the charge stayed after
Hooites-Meursing's lawyer Jim Heller argued the prosecutor in the
case had behaved inappropriately by visiting a potential witness in
jail and telling him what defence witnesses in the first trial had
testified about him.

Humphries did not provide her reasons for the stay Wednesday, but
said they would be released today.

She dismissed members of the jury Wednesday afternoon and thanked
them for their patience as they waited on stand-by for weeks for voir
dire arguments to conclude.

"I can tell you your service is not required as the trial is not
going ahead," Humphries said.

Hooites-Meursing stood up and asked to address the judge.

"I just want to say thank you very much for treating me very fairly
throughout this whole ordeal," said Hooites-Meursing, a large,
imposing 35-year-old.

Heller said outside court that he applied for the stay after learning
on the eve of the second trial that the Crown had made its visit to a
potential witness and described defence testimony from the first trial.

"The Crown advised me that they had visited a guy with a very serious
violent criminal history in custody and they had told him that
defence witnesses had testified against him, that he had mutilated
and tortured them in the past and this was all completely relevant to
my client's defence," Heller explained. "The Crown just went and not
only told him these guys had testified, but had given a letter to
that effect. It was inaccurate and it was explosively dangerous and
it potentially put my client and his witnesses in harm's way."

Heller said he was planning on arguing for a second time that
Hooites-Meursing feared for his life when he shot Lahn, a long-time
gang leader with a string of convictions. The defence planned to call
some of the same witnesses from the first trial, who testified they
had been beaten and threatened by some of Lahn's associates.

"It all goes into this explanation as to why he was afraid of the
drug dealer he worked for that he ultimately shot," Heller said.

"My client, he has been in custody for three years now on a murder
charge where he had a very unusual but a very substantial
self-defence argument." Heller said he does not know which parts of
his argument were accepted by Humphries, who was also the judge who
presided over the jury trial that ended with January's mistrial.

Stanley Low, who speaks for the province's Crown prosecutors, said
Wednesday that he could not comment in depth on the case until the
judge's reasons for the stay have been released.

"Once we receive the judge's decision, we will conduct a
comprehensive review," Low said. "We have 30 days to initiate an
appeal. The Crown prosecutors who had conduct of this trial are very
senior and well-respected trial counsel. They enjoy the full support
and confidence of the criminal justice branch, as well as the police
agency involved in this case."

Heller said it is highly unusual for a judge to stay a murder charge.

But he said what is not unusual is the "the kind of unstated
principle -- it is a convention --that you simply don't tell a
prospective witness what other witnesses have testified to."

"You don't give them transcripts. You don't give them summaries," said Heller.

He said his client will not be released from jail just yet because he
has smaller charges to deal with.

During his first trial, Hooites-Meursing testified that he shot Lahn,
but only because Lahn was reaching for a gun.

Prosecutors rejected the self-defence argument, saying that the
drug-peddling duo had a falling out before the shooting and
Hooites-Meursing was upset after being insulted in public by Lahn.

Lahn, who also went by the first name Jean-Guy, was gunned down on
Oct. 21, 2003 in a mini-mall parking lot, near the intersection of
Sixth Street and 10th Avenue in Burnaby.

Though Lahn was only 24 when he died, he had already lived a life on the edge.

He was a member of a major house-invasion gang and had been a close
associate of many high-profile gangsters, including Bal Buttar, who
was paralysed in a 2001 attempt on his life.