Surrey Six killer loses court battle to have conviction overturned

One of the five men convicted in the Surrey Six murders has lost a court battle to have his conviction overturned.

In 2014, Red Scorpion Cody Haevischer was convicted of six counts of first-degree murder in the October 2007 killings at Surrey’s Balmoral Tower.

Six men, including two innocent victims, Ed Schellenberg and Christopher Mohan, were shot in the head.

Mohan’s mother, Eileen, was at the courthouse on Thursday and cried when Haevischer’s application was dismissed.

“To respect the death of my son… And now courts have respected Christopher also and everyone who died that day, so it’s a beautiful day.”

Haevischer and fellow Red Scorpion, Matthew Johnston, applied for a stay of proceedings following their convictions, alleging abuse of process.

The pair claimed systemic police misconduct and inhumane conditions in custody prejudiced their rights to a fair trial.

A year later, the Supreme Court of Canada granted the Surrey Six killers a new evidentiary hearing .

After 39 witnesses and 209 exhibits, Justice Martha Devlin ruled on Thursday that “the vast majority of Mr. Haevischer’s allegations simply have no merit.”

While acknowledging some of the killer’s solitary confinement breached his Charter rights, she found it was “prompted by legitimate concerns” for his safety.

Devlin dismissed Haevischer’s application, saying: “Any other outcome would not serve to protect the integrity of the justice system.”

“The people who took my son’s life have used the taxpayers’ dollars to their advantage in every turn to set themselves free while we grieve for the loss of our people,” she said.

Before entering convictions for six concurrent terms of life imprisonment, Devlin noted that Haevischer “extinguished the lives of six defenceless men.”

“You just can’t walk to the doorstep of my home, steal my innocent son’s life and expect to walk free from the courts,” she said.