Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (June 15/05) - In the months before he was murdered, crack-cocaine dealer Justin Hai Van Vo was making between $5,000 and $10,000 daily from drug sales, a jury heard Monday.

The revelation was one of several former partner Richard Tutin made during cross examination in the first degree murder trial of Gerald Delorme.

Delorme is accused of killing Vo during a violent altercation in a downtown crack-house on June 16, 2003.

Tutin testified that he and Vo were running a crack-cocaine operation from the Gold Range Hotel in downtown Yellowknife. The business, which ran from January to March of 2003, hauled in up to $10,000 per day.

"We had quite an operation going there," Tutin said last week.

The pair routinely bought and sold drugs for thousands of dollars before being evicted from the apartment, he testified.

"It is business. You have your (downs) and your ups," he said. Tutin, who pleaded guilty to accessory to murder last year in connection with the killing, testified Vietnamese, Chinese and Iranian gangs from southern Canada were responsible for the flow of crack-cocaine into Yellowknife.

There were conflicts between dealers for prime real estate, especially along 50th Street in downtown Yellowknife, Tutin said.

Tutin was trying to arrange financial backing for another crack house on 48th Street in the days before Vo was murdered.

He said Delorme and Dale Coutoreille, the man who controlled the 51st street house where Vo was allegedly killed, were interested in the venture.

Despite the income, Vo accumulated drug debts throughout the Yellowknife underworld, Tutin said.

He owed tens of thousands of dollars to one Iranian dealer and there was a contract on his life when he died, Tutin said.

Tutin volunteered to go undercover for police following his arrest last June in connection with Vo's killing. He offered investigators information on organized crime syndicates - including Vietnamese and Chinese gangs - which he said were major players in the crack-cocaine trade.

Tutin discussed the possibility of entering a witness protection program and told police death threats were made against him and his family.

"I could walk out of (jail) and get a bullet in the head," he said.

Tutin testified last week that Delorme strangled Vo to death during an argument over an $800 drug debt. Monday, defence lawyer Catherine Rhinelander whittled away at Tutin's account of the murder and called his version of events self-serving.

"You told them all kinds of things," Rhinelander said, referring to a series of inconsistent statements Tutin gave to police and Crown attorneys.

Tutin admitted to lying during his testimony at the preliminary hearing of Dale Coutoreille, who pleaded guilty to accessory to murder last year. Tutin discussed the case with Coutoreille and Francis Yukon, who was convicted of manslaughter this spring in connection with the murder. The three, who were in custody awaiting trial, decided to lay the blame squarely on Delorme in the months after the killing.

Testimony in the trial is scheduled to continue throughout the week.