An alleged drug gang member facing trial for murder and conspiracy to commit murder has now been charged with threatening a female prison guard.
Dean Michael Wiwchar is facing a B.C. Supreme Court trial on murder and conspiracy to commit murder charges in connection to the Jan. 17, 2012 slaying of Sandip Duhre, gunned down at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre in Vancouver.
However, Wiwchar appeared on the July 11 Surrey Provincial Court docket facing a charge of uttering or conveying a threat or injury or bodily harm to a correctional officer on July 29, 2023.
He also faces a charge of conduct with the intent to provoke a state of fear in a justice system participant involving the same officer. That alleged event occurred three days later.
In addition, he is charged with an attempted prison escape connected to events July 20 to 26, 2022.
The Wall Centre shooting occurred in a busy restaurant occupied by patrons, including the Cuban women’s national soccer team.
BC Prosecution Service spokesperson Damienne Darby said Wiwchar’s next court appearance is July 29 for a pretrial conference to with deal applications Wiwchar will be bringing forward and the scheduling of those applications.
“He has formally discharged his counsel and will be self-represented at his trial and the applications," Darby said. "The court previously ordered amicus curiae [friend of the court] to assist in ensuring Wiwchar’s fair trial rights are upheld in light of his self-represented status."
Applications will be scheduled for the fall of 2024 and the trial is currently scheduled to start Jan. 13, 2025.
Jury selection is set to start July 7, 2025.
Wiwchar was being tried alongside Rabih “Robby” Alkhalil and Hells Angel Larry Amero.
Amero has since been convicted and sentenced in December 2023 to 18 years.
He is appealing the conviction and the sentence while the Crown is appealing the sentence.
With credit for time served, his remaining prison time was nine years and two months.
Arrests and extradition
In January 2018, Vancouver police announced the arrest of Amero, and charges of one count of conspiracy to commit the murder of Duhre and one count of conspiracy to commit the murder of Sukhveer Dhak.
Amero was a resident of Ottawa. He was arrested with help from the Ottawa Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Biker Enforcement Unit. He was transported to B.C. to face charges.
Amero was driving his Porsche Cayenne with Lower Mainland gangster Jonathan Bacon in the passenger seat when the latter was killed in a hail of gunfire in Kelowna in 2011.
Wiwchar was initially charged with one count of murder in relation to the murder of Duhre and one count of conspiracy to commit the murder of Dhak.
Alkhalil was extradited from Greece to face the charges.
However, Alkhalil made national headlines when he escaped from Port Coquitlam’s North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam, B.C. He’s been at large ever since.
