A B.C. man killed in 2021 was shot several times and then twice more as he lay “writhing on the ground,” a B.C. Supreme Court sentencing hearing was told Jan. 19.
Michael Bailey, 40, was gunned down inside the London Hotel at 208 East Georgia St. in the Downtown Eastside in an apparent conflict between drug dealers.
Ba Hue Tran has already been sentenced to four years for manslaughter for his role in Bailey’s July 20, 2021 death. While he was a party to the crime, Crown conceded it couldn’t prove Tran had fired a shot. Tran pleaded guilty.
Now, Crown prosecutor Brendan McCabe is asking Justice Catherine Wedge to sentence co-accused Joseph Mason, 40, to 15 years after he was convicted of manslaughter by a jury. He was initially charged with second-degree murder.
“The accused himself admitted he shot Mr. Bailey four or five times, two while he was on the ground at his most vulnerable,” McCabe said.
After time already served, his sentence would be 11.5 years. Defence lawyer Trevor Martin suggested an eight-year sentence.
Wedge said she would pass sentence on March 6.
Mason testified at trial.
“He came across as forthright,” McCabe said. “He admitted a couple of things that were against his interest.”
Mason had been using a heroin-methamphetamine cocktail twice an hour at the time of the killing. However, Wedge heard, there was no evidence Mason was impaired.
Bailey was cornered in an alcove with no way to escape.
He was shot “at point blank range,” McCabe said.
Gun dumped in False Creek
The judge heard Mason was living at the hotel at the time and had been part of a drug-dealing team that had once included Bailey.
The incident began when Mason spotted Bailey outside the hotel, somewhere he had been told not to be.
Mason went to find Bailey and a confrontation occurred, much of it caught on hotel video.
McCabe said during that interaction, Bailey struck Mason twice. Mason appeared to be reaching in the back of his pants for something.
Bailey then pulled what appeared to be a gun, the judge was told, and pointed it at Mason. It was that provocation aspect which could have led the jury to convict on manslaughter, not murder, McCabe said.
Mason then fled and went to his room on the floor above and got a rifle.
Returning downstairs, he walked around asking, “Where’s Mike?”
Unable to find Bailey, Mason returned to his room where Tran was and got a second weapon, a semi-automatic rifle. McCabe said Mason had an arsenal in his room, despite several court prohibitions on guns.
Tran picked up the rifle Mason earlier had and followed Mason back to the second floor where they found Bailey in an alcove. Both aimed their weapons at him.
Video showed Tran’s weapon going upwards and possibly recoiling, the court heard.
Mason testified he heard a bang and thought he was being shot at so he opened fire. He later admitted the bang could have been Tran firing.
The two then fled the building, taking the weapons with them. Mason later dumped his in False Creek at the foot of Hornby Street.
Defence lawyer Martin said Mason had described Bailey as a bully, and that the two did not get along.
And, he said, after the incident of having what appeared to be a real gun pointed at his face, Mason was both angry and scared. Bailey had said he would take his belongings and take over the building.
“He interpreted Mr. Bailey’s comments as a threat on his life,” Martin said.
‘Extensive violence’
McCabe told Wedge that Mason has a criminal record of “extensive violence.” His criminal record contains five assaults. He hit one person in the head with a baton and stabbed another in various incidents.
Martin told Wedge there were letters of support from Mason’s mother and uncle as well as one from Mason himself.
“In that letter, he apologizes and expresses a desire to change his life,” Martin said.
