The man accused in a Vancouver gangland shooting that left an innocent teenager dead will be retried by a jury next spring.
The first trial for Kane Carter, 29, ended in a mistrial Sept. 10 after the jury told Justice Catherine Wedge it was deadlocked following five days of deliberations.
Carter has pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in the Jan. 13, 2018 attack.
The BC Prosecution Service confirmed Carter’s counsel has indicated on the record they will be seeking their client’s release before the new trial, although no dates have been scheduled for the bail hearing yet.
The shooting left alleged gangster Kevin Whiteside and innocent 15-year-old Alfred Wong dead. Wong was struck by a bullet while travelling in the back seat of his parents’ car, while another innocent bystander was grazed by a bullet in his own vehicle.
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The case hinged on the identity of the shooter. No witness saw who pulled the trigger, and the murder weapon was never recovered.
Jurors in the first trial saw about 125 exhibits of evidence over 10 weeks, including security video shot at Broadway and Columbia Street and dash camera video that captured audio of the moment Wong was shot.
The Crown’s theory was that Carter was in the area to kill Whiteside, who was himself in the area to kill gang rival Matthew Navas-Rivas.
Surveillance video captured Whiteside running down Broadway and firing at a cab carrying his rival. Navas-Rivas and the other passenger ducked and escaped alive while Whiteside was fatally shot and died on the sidewalk.
Jurors viewed security video of a burgundy van that Crown said was occupied by Carter, which drove away moments after the shooting.
The jury heard the van was later determined to be the same vehicle used by a drug trafficking operation, and which was located at Carter’s Surrey apartment.
Police found gunshot residue and three damaged bullet casings in the van, along with a bloody tissue and other DNA evidence linking it to Carter.
Carter did not testify at his first trial. Defence counsel, however, told the jury there were too many gaps in the Crown’s evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt Carter had fired the deadly shots.
Carter’s next appearance is for a pre-trial conference on Nov. 29. The new trial is scheduled for May 20, 2025.
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