Biker Trials, The (17 page)

The past two months had not been pleasant for Beauchamp. The 46-year-old was a drug dealer who dealt with members of the Rock Machine in southwest Montreal. Beauchamp had learned the Hells Angels had put out a contract on him. But he didn't react the way a member of the Rock Machine would have, especially at that point in the biker war, which would have been to seek revenge. Instead, Beauchamp went to the police and informed them of the threat on his life. He also told his brother. Word of Beauchamp's concern got out, and he managed to arrange a meeting with Maurice (Mom) Boucher at a restaurant in Longueuil. What actually came of the meeting is not known.

But now, Beauchamp was sitting in his Explorer with $60,000 in cash, almost half of it in marked bills. An
RCMP
undercover cop had used the marked bills to buy drugs on December 18,twodays earlier. Where the drug money was destined to go is unknown, but the number Beauchamp paged three times belonged to Michel
Sylvestre, Boucher's former brother-in-law and a close associate of the Hells Angels.

From left to right: Bruno Lefebvre, Pierre Provencher and Gregory Wooley.

In less than a year, Sylvestre would be among the first six Quebecers ever to be charged with violating federal anti-gang legislation. The arrests followed a lengthy
RCMP
investigation that uncovered a plot to smuggle 600 kilograms of cocaine and a conspiracy that saw several million dollars in contraband cigarettes shipped to the U.S. only to be smuggled back into Canada and sold under the table — allegedly to maintain product recognition after the federal government had placed higher taxes on cigarettes. A few of the men pleaded guilty to being part of the smuggling conspiracies, but Sylvestre saw the charges against him withdrawn.

As Beauchamp sat waiting for Sylvestre to answer his page, someone walked up to the driver's side window of his Explorer and fired several shots. One bullet struck and killed Beauchamp. The shooter was spotted running for a Dodge Caravan parked nearby with a getaway driver waiting inside. The minivan sped off down Metcalfe Street and was eventually found abandoned near the entrance of the Bonaventure métro station, part of Montreal's elaborate subway system. The Caravan had been stolen a few days earlier as had the new licence plate affixed to the back. The trick would be used in several Hells Angels' hits — drivers often don't notice their licence plate is missing, so placing
a stolen plate on a stolen vehicle buys some time when the police run a random check.

All that was found inside the Caravan was the screwdriver used to start it. An employee of the métro station found a gun and a hat inside the Bonaventure station hours later. The gun turned out to be the one used to shoot Beauchamp, and inside the hat the police found
DNA
that they would later match to Gregory Wooley, who was just 24 years old at the time of the murder and yet to have any status in the Rockers. About four weeks after Beauchamp's slaying, Wooley was named a hangaround in the Hells Angels' underling gang. Stéphane Sirois, a man who later turned against the Rockers and worked as an undercover agent for the police, testified that Wooley walked into a bar where the gang hung out only a few hours after Beauchamp was killed and bragged that he had “got one.” From their conversation that night, Sirois also learned that René Charlebois helped out on the hit and that Boucher had given Wooley strict orders to leave the money inside Beauchamp's Ford Explorer because he didn't want the hit to look like a drug deal gone wrong.

Beauchamp's murder would be among the 23 charges filed in connection with Project Rush. All 42 of the Hells Angels or Rockers named in the indictment were accused of conspiring to kill members of the Alliance, the Dark Circle, the Rock Machine or the Bandidos between January 15,1995, and March 27, 2001. They were also accused of drug trafficking and conspiring to traffic drugs during that period. Gangsterism charges were attached to the conspiracy and drug trafficking charges. For example, all of those charged were accused of participating in a gang, knowing that its members had committed criminal acts within the five previous years. Several of the 42 charged were also accused of conspiring on two occasions to commit the mass murder of Rock Machine members. Both attempts involved large quantities of explosives that never went off but could have
easily killed innocent people if they had.

When it came down to the Beauchamp's murder and 12 others like it, the Crown singled out Hells Angels or Rockers who were active in the gang and not in jail when the homicides were committed. Prosecutors would later argue that the 13 murders shared a pattern — all the victims had ties to the Alliance and after they were killed, the weapons and vehicles used in most cases were either dumped or destroyed by fire.

“Each of these victims presented an obstacle to the complete objective that was favored by each and every [gang] member who adhered to the values and adhered equally to the plan that was previously established, that is to say to become the sole organization able to control and sell drugs in the territory of Montreal,” said Crown prosecutor André Vincent when he made his opening remarks to the jury on October 21, 2002, during one of the mega-trials to come out of Project Rush. “You won't see a witness come here and say, 'I heard a bawling out between the victim and his assailant.' In every case you will see people who will tell you, 'The assailant headed directly [toward the victim], without saying a word, shot in his direction and left immediately.' That is what I call the characteristics of a settling of accounts. It is not about someone squabbling with another, saying 'you took my parking space.' There were no words exchanged And I would even go further,” Vincent said. “In hearing the evidence you will learn how in almost every case the victim did not even see his assailant.”

Wooley was tried twice for the murder of Beauchamp after his case was separated from the rest of the group arrested in Project Rush. Both times he was acquitted of first-degree murder by a jury despite a seemingly solid case against him. The Crown had
DNA
evidence and testimony from Stéphane Sirois who said he heard Wooley brag that he “got one” after Beauchamp was killed.

But the defense created enough doubt in the minds of the
jurors when it revealed there was a hole in the chain of possession of the
DNA
evidence. The Montreal police were unable to identify where the evidence had been stored for a period of time, allowing for the possibility that the hair found in the tuque was planted.

Wooley, who had already developed a reputation for being lucky when it came to court cases, was able to plead guilty to lesser charges. On June 27, 2005 he was sentenced to 13 years for his role in the biker-gang war. He admitted to conspiring to kill rival gang members, drug trafficking and participating in gang activity. Because of the time he spent behind bars awaiting the outcome of his case, he is eligible for parole in 2007.

Marc Belhumeur likely didn't see the man who came to shoot him. Belhumeur, a former prospect in the Rock Machine, was talking on a pay phone inside the Le Chalutier brasserie in Montreal's east end when a masked man opened fire on him. At around the same time Beauchamp had learned the Hells Angels had a contract out on his head, Belhumeur, who was out on bail on drug trafficking charges, began to notice he was being followed. He too assumed his days were numbered and he asked that his life insurance be increased. He also started telling his relatives what kind of funeral he'd like. One sign that the Hells Angels were after him came while the Sûreté du Québec was executing a search warrant at the Hells Angels' bunker in Trois Rivières — they noticed Belhumeur's photo on a bulletin board.

A little over a month after the Beauchamp murder, around 1 p.m. on January 24, 1997, Belhumeur was shot with a 9-mm Smith & Wesson firearm. He dropped the phone and tried to flee but was gunned down, on the day of his 25th birthday, near the entrance to the brasserie's kitchen. The shooter fled out the back door, as if he already knew the layout of the bar very well. It was
a sign of a well-planned hit. The shooter left no fingerprints, but Sirois would later testify that René Charlebois boasted of carrying out the perfect hit in killing Belhumeur.

A few months after Belhumeur's murder, Yvon (Mon Mon) Roy, another member of the Alliance, had been cleared of charges involving the plot to kill Maurice (Mom) Boucher. According to Harold Pelletier, the hit man who had turned informant, Roy had attended the meeting where the plot to kill Boucher with a truck bomb had been hatched, but there was no proof that he took action after the meeting was held. Of course, that didn't take Roy off the Hells Angels' hit list. He was well known as a dealer for the Pelletier Clan and was apparently doing business in Montreal's contested east end.

More than a year after being cleared in the murder conspiracy, Roy was shot to death in front of his home in Repentigny. The 57-year-old drug dealer was mowing his lawn at around 10 a.m. on July 30,1998, when two gunmen opened fire on him, emptying their weapons, a .38-calibre revolver and a Cobray automatic pistol equipped with a silencer. Roy was struck in the head, neck, left arm and forearm. After he fell to the ground one of the gunmen dropped the Cobray near his driveway. Stunned neighbors watched as the two gunmen fled in a purple Chevrolet Cavalier. The revolver was tossed out the car's window.

As the police investigated the murder, they tried to track down the getaway car. They soon learned that a Cavalier fitting the description had been rented by someone using a false name the day before the shooting. After doing a little digging, investigators learned the car had been rented by a man named Stéphane (Archie) Hilareguy. Two months after the Roy murder, on October 1, 1998, Hilareguy (who with his red curly hair actually did resemble Archie, the comic book character he was nicknamed
after) was made a striker in the Rockers. Hilareguy never returned the Cavalier, but the police learned that he and René Charlebois paid the rental company compensation for the lost vehicle. Thanks to the evidence linking the Rockers to the hit on Roy, his murder was one of the 13 included among the Project Rush charges.

Richard (Bam Bam) Lagacé's murder was not included in the Project Rush charges, although it appeared that his murder was timed to coincide with Roy's. About an hour before Roy was killed, Lagacé, a member of the Rock Machine, was shot as he left a workout gym in a small town north of Montreal called Saint-Lin. In that case as well, two shooters were involved, but they were unprepared and had to storm into a woman's house and threaten her with a firearm in order to steal a getaway car. It was later found abandoned in a cemetery. It was apparent that Lagacé had been a drug dealer for years. In 1994, he had been arrested at this home in Saint-Lin where the police seized cocaine, hashish and
PCP
. They also found several firearms and a tazer.

Lagacé had been the target of a Hells Angels' murder plot before, and he had been arrested in Quebec City after the police broke up a meeting in a posh restaurant where the Rock Machine dined with George Wegers, then the U.S. national vice-president of the Bandidos. Wegers had entered the country illegally and was shipped back to the U.S. but the meeting turned out to be the first clear sign the Bandidos were interested in taking over the Rock Machine, something the Hells Angels in Quebec would not tolerate.

A little over a month after Roy and Lagacé were murdered, Johnny Plescio, a founding member of the Rock Machine, was
watching television in his Laval home when the cable suddenly shut off. Plescio got up from his chair to find out what had happened and as he neared the television, which was next to a window at the back of his house, he was greeted by a hailstorm of bullets. At least two men were believed to have carried out the hit on Plescio, on September 8, 1998. One had placed a lawnchair underneath the window and climbed up on it. Another cut Plescio's television cable. Twenty-seven shots were fired at Plescio as he stood near the window. Sixteen of them found their mark.

The gunmen left the scene in a stolen Plymouth Neon that was found abandoned three miles away. It had been doused in gasoline and set on fire. Witnesses watched as the two men headed for a minivan that was parked nearby. The vehicle's engine was already running and the pair jumped in before it sped away. After putting out the blaze, firefighters noticed two firearms inside the Neon. They turned out to be the two Cobray automatics, equipped with silencers, used in Plescio's murder. Plescio's body was discovered in his home hours later.

At his funeral, Plescio was laid out in a shirt with the word “Bandidos” written on it. The international biker gang had also sent floral arrangements, yet another sign that the Bandidos were interested in the Rock Machine. Plescio had been involved in the biker war from the very start. About a year before he was killed, someone had made two attempts to burn down a bar he owned on Bélanger Street in Montreal's east end. The police had information that the bar was being used as a front to sell drugs.