OFF THE WIRE
The brother of a notorious Hells Angels member has won his appeal, resulting in his sentence being reduced by two years.
Norman Clay Stanton was originally sentenced to six years concurrent for five offences: Conspiracy to commit unlawful confinement, unlawful confinement, robbery and assault causing bodily harm.
In a unanimous judgment this week, a three-judge panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal allowed his appeal and varied the sentence to four years for the offences. In written reasons, Justice Daphne Smith cited the trial judge's failure to consider Stanton's efforts at rehabilitation, resulting in a sentence "that fell outside the range of sentences for similar offences and similar offenders and that was demonstrably unfit."
The charges stemmed from October 2001, when a man named Alexander Goldman had his Surrey marijuanagrowing operation taken over by Stanton's brother, former East End Hells Angels member Juel (Juels) Ross Stanton, who was fatally shot outside his home last year.
Goldman recalled that Juels and his associates arrived and said they were taking over the grow operation, telling Goldman to get lost.
When Goldman, then in the witness protection program, appealed to Juels for money to live on, Goldman was taken to a Coquitlam warehouse and beaten so badly he spent five days recovering in hospital with black eyes, broken ribs and fractured facial bones. After the attack, the Crown contended, Goldman started getting calls from Richard Doucet, who convinced Goldman to meet him at a grocery store in Surrey on Oct. 15, 2001.
At the time, Doucet was under surveillance by police investigating two murders at a Surrey crack house known as the House of Horrors.
A police wiretap operation captured Doucet calling Juels's brother, Norman, and discussing how people were looking for Goldman. Norman was heard directing Doucet to confine Goldman if he was found. At the trial of the Stanton brothers and two coaccused, police testified they watched a van leased by Norm Stanton arrive near the arranged meeting place. However, Goldman and another man met Doucet and followed him in their vehicles to a nearby basement suite, where Goldman was restrained and assaulted with brass knuckles by Juels.
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Sentence+brother+Hells+Angel/4723307/story.html#ixzz1LNnQ63o7
