Charges dismissed against Coquitlam men accused of kidnapping, torture Robert

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Charges dismissed against Coquitlam men accused of kidnapping, torture



VANCOUVER -- Charges were dismissed today against two men after a judge ruled to exclude prior statements of a victim who had his ear and finger cut off during a kidnapping four years ago.

After B.C. Supreme Court Justice Arne Silverman ruled a day earlier that the prior statements to police of Robert McMillan were inadmissible, the Crown elected to call no further evidence at the trial, so charges of charges were dismissed against Jesse Margison and Troy McKinnon.

Margison, 25, and McKinnon, 28, both of Coquitlam, were on trial on charges of kidnapping, unlawfully confining and brutally assaulting McMillan, their former associate, in July 2007.

The two men were accused of cutting off McMillan's ear and finger and storing the body parts in an ice cream container, prosecutor Mark Sheardown said during his opening statement at the start of the pair's trial on Feb. 28.

The prosecutor alleged the two men grabbed McMillan at the home of Margison's mother, threw a blanket over his head and took him to the basement of another residence that was set up as a torture room.

"There was plastic sheeting on the floor," Sheardown said during his opening. And a chair was placed in the middle of the room, he added.

The Crown theory was that Margison and McKinnon interrogated McMillan about an incident in December 2006 during which McMillan's brother shot McKinnon in the foot before the McMillan brothers robbed Margison and McKinnon of drugs and cash.

During the July 2007 assault, both accused put guns in McMillan's ears, nose and mouth, but when McMillan didn't reveal anything , both accused bashed the victim's knees with a framing hammer and threatened to use a bolt cutter, the prosecutor alleged.

McKinnon then took an X-Acto knife and cut off McMillan's left ear, the Crown said.

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"Do you hear me now? Are you going to talk now?" McKinnon allegedly shouted at the victim.

McMillan was then asked which finger or toe he wanted to lose next, and when the victim offered up his right hand pinky finger, it was cut off with gardening shears, the Crown alleged.

McMillan then pleaded for his life and was dumped at the corner of First Avenue and Lillooet in east Vancouver. The victim was found by police after making a 911 call for an ambulance.

He refused to cooperate with police. But the Gang Task Force received a tip in October 2008 about body parts stored in a Coquitlam basement suite.

Police searched the suite at 2910 Dewdney Trunk Road on Oct. 12, 2008 and found McMillan's ear and finger in a fridge freezer, stashed inside a Coffee Crisp ice cream container.

Fingerprints from the ice cream carton belonged to Nick Smith, a drug trafficker and Margison associate who was shot to death in Vancouver on Feb. 11, 2009. Also inside the basement suite were two rifles and stashes of ammunition.

McMillan, who is serving a 12-year sentence for an unrelated sex assault conviction, was called to testify as a Crown witness but refused to testify, proclaiming the two accused were not the men who mutilated him.

When McMillan was warned about the consequences of contempt, he began yelling and swearing at the judge, asking to be returned to his cell.

McMillan's brother Jonathan was shot to death in December 2007.

Margison's girlfriend, Brianna Kinnear, was gunned down in February 2009 in another unsolved targeted shooting.

Gang Task Force spokesman Sgt. Shinder Kirk said the case underscores the challenge of trying to present evidence in court without the cooperation of a victim.

"This is one of the hurdles we face," he said Wednesday. "We will, of course, abide by the court decision and move on."

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Robert McMillan, the gang asociate who was tortured, in court


Troy McKinnon