Brett Gardiner
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Brett Gardiner | |
|---|---|
| Born | 19 June 1984 Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
| Other names | "Bull" |
| Occupations | |
| Known for | Participant in the Shedden massacre |
| Allegiance | Bandidos MC |
| Convictions | First-degree murder and manslaughter (2009) |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment (2009) |
Brett Gardiner (born 19 June 1984) is a Canadian outlaw biker and gangster serving a life sentence for his role in the Shedden massacre of 2006.
Shedden massacre
Gardiner was born in Calgary and worked as an ironworker.[1] His parents, Brian and Beth Gardiner, were Welsh immigrants who arrived in Canada in 1976.[2] Gardiner is an avid reader and an amateur poet.[1] Gardiner had moved to Winnipeg, where he was recruited into the Winnipeg chapter of the Bandidos by Dwight "Big Dee" Mushey.[1] He lived as a boarder in Mushey's house along with Marcello "Fat Ass" Aravena.[1] Like Aravena, Gardiner did not own nor know how to ride a motorcycle.[1] The Bandidos Motorcycle Club is a criminal organization that poses as a motorcycle club, and almost all of the members of the Winnipeg Bandido chapter did not know how to ride motorcycles.[1]
On 25 March 2006, the Winnipeg chapter president Michael "Taz" Sandham announced to his followers that he had received orders from American Bandido leaders in Houston to act against the "no surrender crew", as the Toronto chapter was called, and they were departing for the farm of Wayne "Wiener" Kellestine without telling him that they were coming.[3] Gardiner was one of those chosen to go to Kellestine's farm.[4] Peter Edwards, the crime correspondent of The Toronto Star described Gardiner as a weak character, as "someone who was continually in search of guidance" who was very loyal to Sandham.[1] Gardiner did not have a reputation for violence, but was known as someone who would do anything to advance Sandham's plans, which was why Sandham had chosen him to go with him to Kellestine's farm.[1]
Kellestine treated the junior Bandidos like Aravena and Gardiner like slaves, expecting them to do all of his housework for them.[5] Gardiner had to bring Kellestine water, cooked his meals, washed his dishes and chopped his wood.[5] Gardiner was a man of very limited intelligence, whom Kellestine in a joke had once asked to supply him with pickles from a "pickle tree" growing on his farm, which led him to spend hours looking for the elusive "pickle tree" before telling Kellestine that he could not find it.[6] Finally, Kellestine broke out laughing, telling Gardiner that pickles were vegetables, not fruits and the assignment was a joke to prove to the others just how low his intelligence really was.[6]
On the night of 5 April 2006, Gardiner wrote a poem to his girlfriend whom he called "Baby Jessica" entitled Love Not Lost on Kellestine's computer that read: "I choked back tears as I watched you leave/This was something I could not believe/I held back whimpers as I watched you go/An event that would lead to everlasting sorrow/You met me by the sparking lake/And I immediately forgot my heartache/We kissed and held each other very near/The beating of our hearts was all we could hear/Then we walked away, hand-in-hand/We had just entered dreamland".[7] The poem ended with Gardiner writing in capital letters in his own hand: "YOU WILL ALWAYS BE IN MY HEART. PROSPECT BANDIDO BULL, MANITOBA".[8] Gardiner's poem with his claim that he was a "prospect" (the second level in an outlaw biker club) was to be crucial evidence against him at his trial in 2009.[8]
At the beginning of April 2006, Kellestine accused one of the "no surrender crew", Jamie "Goldberg" Flanz, of being a police informer.[9] As Flanz was Jewish and the rabidly anti-Semitic Kellestine hated him for that, the Bandidos national president Giovanni "Boxer" Muscedere did not take the allegation seriously, but to settle the matter, it was agreed that the "no surrender crew" would visit Kellestine's farm to discuss his claims.[10] As part of the preparations for the massacre, Gardiner searched the grounds of Kellestine's farm for old shotgun shells that might turn up during a police search (Kellestine was under two lifetime weapons bans).[6] Gardiner cleaned the guns from Kellestine's gun cache with a wire brush.[11]
On the night of 7 April 2006, Gardiner was ordered to stay in Kellestine's house, listening to the police scanners.[12] Gardiner had no gun, but he had a phone right next to him as he listened to the police scanners.[13] Edwards noted that Gardiner could have called the police anytime he wanted to stop the massacre and never did.[13] During the massacre, Gardiner heard the shots and came outside, saying: "Did you fucking hear that? I should go check on Wayne".[14] Mushey told him to go back inside the house and ordered Frank Mather to make certain that he went back to the scanners.[14] Mushey barked at Gardiner: "Shut your fucking mouth! Go back in the house".[15] Gardiner was present when the last of the "no-surrender crew", Jamie Flanz, was killed.[16] Gardiner removed the children's toys from a Pontiac Grand Prix that belonged to Michael "Little Mikey" Trotta to make room for Flanz and watched as Flanz sat down in the car.[17] Sandham shot Flanz who survived his wound and proved incapable of killing him, claiming his gun was jammed.[18] Mushey took the gun from Sandham and proved that it was not jammed by shooting Flanz between the eyes.[18]
After the massacre, Gardiner helped clean up the crime scene and destroyed evidence.[19] Sandham promoted Aravena and Gardiner up to "full patch" Bandidos early on the morning of 8 April.[20] Gardiner chose not to return to Winnipeg and instead decided to stay with Kellestine despite his desire to return to Winnipeg to see his girlfriend.[21] Gardiner's decision to stay with Kellestine was used at his trial as evidence that he was not afraid of Kellestine. Gardiner was arrested on the night of 8 April 2006 at Kellestine's farmhouse and charged with first-degree murder.[22] The journalist Jerry Langton wrote: "Inside the barn, the police found blood spatters and bits of human flesh and hair among the beer bottles and Nazi flags. Gardiner had done a lousy job cleaning up".[22]
On 17 June 2006, Gardiner called his girlfriend, Jessica McDowell, from his jail cell saying that someone in the Winnipeg chapter was making "an eight-hour video", which was his way of saying that another member of the Winnipeg chapter, a man known only as M.H. due to a court order, had turned Crown's evidence and had made an eight-hour long video confession for the police.[23] McDowell asked if he was excited about celebrating his birthday in jail the coming Monday, leading him to sarcastically say: "Yeah, a whole lot excited".[24] Gardiner's mother phoned him on 18 June 2006 to urge him to turn Crown's evidence, saying that testifying against the others was his best chance of receiving a lesser sentence given that he was facing charges of first-degree murder.[25] She stated she had spoken with the Crown Attorney handling the case, and he was open to a plea bargain with Gardiner out of the account of his age and that he had not killed anyone.[25] Gardiner rejected his mother's advice, saying he would be loyal to his biker "brothers" and that "The only thing I'm going to say is 'here's my lawyers' number'" if an offer to turn Crown's evidence was made to him.[26]
Gardiner was charged along with Mather and Aravena with "constructive first-degree murder", meaning that although the three had not killed anyone, the Crown alleged that Gardiner together with Mather and Aravena were aware of the plans to massacre the "no-surrender crew" beforehand and that by assisting the killers that the three was just as much guilty of first-degree murder as those who actually did the killing.[27] "Constructive first-degree murder" is a difficult charge to prove in court, and a number of lawyers felt that Gardiner had a strong chance of acquittal.[27] Many legal experts felt that the Crown Attorney prosecuting the case, Keven Gowdey, would have much difficulty in persuading the jury to convict the accused of "constructive first-degree murder".[27]