Alleged 856 gang member avoids drug trafficking conviction
Man who jumped out window to escape police found guilty of cocaine possession
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Friday, March 31, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Numerous charges against two men labeled by RCMP as being connected with the criminal '856' gang of Lower Mainland B.C. ultimately failed to stick as one man was freed Wednesday and another was convicted on a relatively minor possession charge for cocaine.
Michael Robert Hopkins, 29, of Langley, B.C., who suffered a cracked vertebrae when he jumped from the third floor of an apartment building to avoid police, has been found not guilty of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.
NWT Supreme Court judge Andrew Mahar instead convicted him of the lesser offence of simple possession of cocaine. Hopkins was immediately taken into custody. His sentencing is scheduled for this afternoon.
Another man, who remained in the apartment as police raided it, was found not guilty of possession for the purpose of trafficking.
Christopher Mathers, 32, of London, Ont., had surrendered peacefully when officers stormed the unit on Dec. 6, 2013. Mathers told Yellowknifer he was relieved as he walked out of the courtroom a free man.
At a five-day trial held jointly for both men in February, court heard that while officers were entering the unit, Hopkins jumped out a third storey bedroom window in the Fort Gary Apartments on Gitzel Street. He did so just as several RCMP officers were crashing through the apartment's front door as they executed a search warrant. Three bags containing 37 grams of crack cocaine were found on the ground below the window within a five-foot radius of where Hopkins had landed, court heard. He was later arrested, badly injured, inside another unit at the same apartment building.
Mahar ruled the evidence Crown prosecutor Duane Praught presented was circumstantial and did not prove Hopkins or Mathers were linked to the drugs found on the ground. Mahar did, however, rule Hopkins was connected to 1.9 grams of cocaine found inside the apartment itself. He ruled Mathers could not necessarily be linked to the drugs found inside the apartment. Police recovered scales, cash and score sheets inside the apartment.
At one time Hopkins and Mathers both faced several drug and weapons charges but most were eventually dropped.
Praught said he accepts the judge's decision.
"He had doubt that either one of the individuals possessed the drugs found outside but he was convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Hopkins possessed the drugs found in the living room," Praught said.
"He wasn't convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Mathers had knowledge and control of the drugs found outside. Mathers was in the bedroom when the warrant was executed but his honour concluded that Mr. Hopkins had a stronger connection to the unit."
During the trial, RCMP Const. Andrew Moore testified he led seven other officers from the Mounties' Emergency Response Team (ERT) in executing the search warrant just after 5 a.m.
He said they used a battering ram on the door to enter the apartment when no one answered their knock.
Moore said he deployed a distraction device in the apartment, commonly referred to as a flash bang or a flash grenade. The device is used because is emits a loud bang and a bright light and is used to disorient suspects. He said he saw Mathers with both hands poking out of a bedroom door and telling officers he had a dog in his room.
Moore said Mathers was subsequently taken into custody while Moore tried to prevent the pitbull-type dog from also jumping out the window.
The drug raid at Fort Gary was one of a number of search warrants executed around the same time in Yellowknife. Those raids netted more than $32,000 in cash, 226 grams of crack cocaine, weapons, electronics, drug paraphernalia and an RCMP-issued jacket and bullet-proof vest.
