When Dean Michael Wiwchar was charged in June for gunning down a man in Toronto’s Little Italy, his lawyer claimed he was innocent and “in shock” over the “surreal” charges. And the lawyer refuted a police claim that he was a B.C. resident leading up to his arrest.
But I tracked down court documents Thursday that show Wiwchar was not only established and living in B.C., but that he was under investigation by the Vancouver ...
On Friday, I received parole documents for Dean Michael Wiwchar, the alleged hitman in Toronto’s Little Italy murder last June, who is now facing 37 firearms charges in B.C.
The documents provide a glimpse into Wiwchar’s violent history and serious concerns that parole board members raised about his potential to re-offend.
Wiwchar is in custody in Ontario, where he grew up before landing in B.C. prisons after he was sentenced for a series of violent ...
A Metro Vancouver gangster facing a series of firearms charges was arrested and photographed in 2011 in violation of his Charter rights, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled Wednesday.
Justice Gregory Bowden accepted defence submissions that there were no apparent grounds to arrest and detain Philip Juan Ley without a warrant in Richmond in 2011, let alone take his photograph.
That photograph was later used to identity Ley as a suspect in the 2012 investigation ...
A Vancouver man suspected of a role in the 2012 murder of gangster Sandip Duhre has been convicted on nine firearms charges.
Dean Michael Wiwchar had admitted to possessing two guns found in his Vancouver apartment by police investigating Duhre’s January murder.
But he had claimed not to have knowledge of 14 other firearms, several of which were loaded, found inside a storage ottoman in suite a Surrey high-rise on 108th Avenue during the same probe.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Gregory Bowden convicted Wiwchar on all counts, saying the circumstantial evidence proved Wiwchar had knowledge and possession of the Surrey guns.
He noted that police were watching Wiwchar and Philip Juan Ley arrive and leave the Surrey building at 13380 108th Ave. in March and April 2012 and that no one else had access to suite 1209, where the guns were found.
He said that even though Wiwchar’s fingerprints and DNA were not found on the firearms, a single print of his on a London Drugs bag inside the ottoman was significant.
“It is reasonable to infer that either Mr. Wiwchar himself placed the London Drugs bag in the ottoman or he was present in suite 1209 when [Ley] placed it there. In either scenario, it is reasonable to infer that Mr. Wiwchar would have then become aware of the guns in the ottoman,” Bowden said.
Ley earlier pleaded guilty to possession of some of the guns and was sentenced to six years minus time-served. He was not referred to by name in Bowden’s ruling Thursday, but described only as “the Asian male.”
Bowden described the cache of weapons found by police in the ottoman as weighing about 100 pounds.
“They found two revolvers, six semi-automatic handguns, an Uzi semi-automatic rifle, three assault rifles, two shotguns and ammunition and magazines. They were tested and found to be operational,” Bowden said.
“In my view, considered with all the other evidence, I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Wiwchar had the requisite control and knowledge of the firearms and devices in the ottoman to find him guilty of possession as charged.”
He said police believed the Surrey apartment, which was sparsely furnished, was a safe house used by the gangsters for their criminal activities.
While Vancouver police suspected Wiwchar’s involvement in Duhre’s murder inside the Sheraton Wall Centre, they also believed he and Ley were plotting someone else’s death during the spring 2012 investigation.
Bowden noted that Wiwchar used the Surrey apartment to change his clothes before heading off to Surrey’s World Gym with Ley “where they appeared to be looking for someone.”
“On each occasion, Mr. Wiwchar would be wearing white clothing when he arrived at the Surrey tower and would change into dark clothing before going to the World Gym. After returning from the World Gym, he would then leave the Surrey tower dressed again in white clothing,” Bowden said.
On one of their scouting trips to the gym, the pair spent seven hours “looking mainly at East Indian males,” Bowden said.
Police searched the Surrey apartment after Wiwchar and Ley left for a Mexican vacation on April 18, 2012. And they searched Wiwchar’s Vancouver suite after he returned to Canada and headed to Toronto on May 24.
Wiwchar appeared unfazed by Bowden’s verdict. He smiled throughout the proceedings and turned several times to grin at the reporters in the gallery of high-security courtroom 20 at the Vancouver Law Courts.
His sentencing hearing was adjourned until August.
His lawyer Simon Buck said the Crown plans to ask for 15 years in jail, while he will be arguing for “considerably less.”
Wiwchar has never been charged in Duhre’s slaying, though his associate Rabih (Robby) Alkhalil faces one count of first-degree murder in the Vancouver hit.
Both Wiwchar and Alkhalil are also facing first-degree murder charges in Toronto in the June 2012 gangland execution of Johnnie Raposo, 35.
Raposo was gunned down outside the Sicilian Sidewalk Cafe in Little Italy.
An accused killer suspected in the murder of gangster Sandip Duhre has been sentenced to 10 years for possession of 16 firearms in the months after the 2012 slaying.
Dean Wiwchar, 30, was convicted in June of possessing two guns found in his Vancouver apartment, as well as 14 other firearms seized from a Surrey highrise during the Duhre investigation.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Gregory Bowden ruled this week that Wiwchar should spend a decade behind bars
“I consider the firearms offences at both the Surrey apartment and Mr. Wiwchar’s residence to be very grave,” Bowden said in his reasons for sentencing, released Tuesday.
“The fact that the Surrey apartment was a safe-house together with the suspicious activity of Mr. Wiwchar in coming to and going from that apartment strongly suggests an aura of criminality around the possession of the firearms at that location. At his Vancouver residence, Mr. Wiwchar had a loaded restricted handgun readily available in his bedroom closet.”
Police were watching Wiwchar and co-accused Philip Juan Ley as they arrived and left the Surrey building at 13380 108th Ave. in March and April 2012.
Ley earlier pleaded guilty to possession of some of the guns and was sentenced to six years minus time served.
Bowden didn’t grant Wiwchar any credit for his time in pre-trial custody noting that he was also awaiting trial for the June 2012 murder of Johnny Raposo.
Raposo was gunned down outside the Sicilian Sidewalk Cafe in Toronto’s Little Italy.
Bowden said Wiwchar and Ley likely “possessed the firearms for a nefarious purpose and it is not unreasonable to infer that the purpose was to threaten or inflict serious bodily harm or death.”
Wiwchar, who grew up in Ontario, has a lengthy criminal history dating back to 2001.
“His convictions include three aggravated assaults, five robberies, two assaults causing bodily harm, four assaults of peace officers, one assault with a weapon, two [simple] assaults, six uttering threats and eight for failing to comply with court orders,” Bowden said.
Among the guns Wiwchar possessed were: Sig Sauer, Colt, Ruger, Taurus and Norinco pistols, a .44 Magnum handgun, an H & K semi-automatic pistol, a Romanian rifle and an Uzi sub-machine gun.
“Our courts have often commented on the serious and inherently dangerous circumstances surrounding firearms related offences and the need for sentences to reflect their very serious and dangerous nature,” Bowden said.
Wiwchar has never been charged in the Duhre murder, but his co-accused in the Toronto case, Rabih (Robby) Alkhalil, is also charged in B.C. with killing Duhre.
However Alkhalil is scheduled to go to trial in Ontario first and has not yet made an appearance on the Duhre charge.
B.C.’s highest court has dismissed an appeal by an accused killer convicted in 2015 on several firearms charges.
Dean Michael Wiwchar, who is awaiting trial for an Ontario murder, argued to the B.C. Court of Appeal that the B.C. Supreme Court judge who convicted him misunderstood the evidence in his earlier case.
Wiwchar claimed that Justice Gregory Bowden wrongly concluded that he had knowledge of firearms and ammunition that police found inside an ottoman in a Surrey suite he controlled. Wiwchar’s fingerprint was found on a plastic London Drugs bag inside the ottoman.
But Appeal Court Justice Daphne Smith disagreed.
“In my view, there was no miscarriage of justice and the verdict was reasonable based on the record. The judge did not misapprehend the evidence,” Smith said in written reasons released Tuesday. “The inferences he drew flowed logically from the evidence available to him at trial. Lastly, the judge’s reasons in my view adequately explained why he convicted Mr. Wiwchar.”
Appeal Court Chief Justice Robert Bauman and Justice Richard Goepel agreed with Smith.
In September 2015, Bowden sentenced Wiwchar to 10 years in jail for possession of 16 firearms in the spring of 2012.
At the time, Vancouver police were investigating Wiwchar as a suspect in the January 2012 murder of gangster Sandip Duhre, who was shot to death in the lobby of the Sheraton Wall Centre.
Police followed Wiwchar and co-accused Philip Juan Ley as they appeared to be doing surveillance on possible targets. Officers feared the pair was plotting someone else’s death during the spring 2012 investigation.
Vancouver police later seized two guns from Wiwchar’s Jervis Street apartment, as well as 14 others from the Surrey suite that he and Ley used as a “safe-house.”
Bowden said Wiwchar and Ley likely “possessed the firearms for a nefarious purpose, and it is not unreasonable to infer that the purpose was to threaten or inflict serious bodily harm or death.”
Wiwchar admitted to possessing the firearms found in his Vancouver apartment, but claimed at his trial to have no knowledge of the other guns found in the Surrey suite, something the judge rejected.
Wiwchar has never been charged in the Duhre slaying, but is awaiting trial for the June 2012 murder of Johnny Raposo outside the Sicilian Sidewalk Cafe in Toronto’s Little Italy.
His co-accused in the Toronto case, Rabih (Robby) Alkhalil, is also charged in B.C. with killing Duhre, although no trial date has been set.
