Family members of shooter acquitted of covering up slaying of Surrey teen

Two family members of a man who pleaded guilty to fatally shooting his former girlfriend were acquitted of helping to cover up the crime.

Two family members of a man who pleaded guilty to fatally shooting a Surrey teen were acquitted Monday of helping the killer cover up the crime.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jeanne Watchuk found Gurvinder Singh Deo, the brother of Harjot Singh Deo, and Talwinder Singh Khun Khun, a member of Deo’s extended family, not guilty of being accessories-after-the-fact in the manslaughter of Bhavkiran (Kiran) Dhesi.

In February, Harjot Deo, a former boyfriend of the victim, had pleaded guilty to the August 2017 manslaughter of the 19-year-old victim. He had initially been charged with second-degree murder.

Court heard that Deo had accidentally shot the victim in Deo’s family home on 147th Street in Surrey after she had travelled to the home in a BMW. The body of the victim, who was shot in Deo’s bedroom, was wrapped in a comforter and placed in the trunk of the BMW, and then driven to a location on 186 B Street, where the vehicle was set on fire.

A bloody mattress was later taken from the Deo family home to a location in Surrey and also burned.

At the trial of Gurvinder Deo and Khun Khun, the Crown’s theory was that after Harjot Deo shot Dhesi, he phoned a cousin who lived nearby. A flurry of communications then occurred among a select group of six individuals.

According to the Crown, the calls set in motion a chain of events that amounted to the accused assisting Harjot Deo in covering up the killing of Dhesi.

Harjot Deo, who is facing a sentencing hearing Wednesday, undertook several acts with the assistance of others, allegedly including the accused, in order to remove or destroy evidence that connected him to the death of the teen.

After the vehicle was burned, Gurvinder Deo and Khun Khun were alleged to have travelled back to the Deo residence with Harjot Deo to continue the cleanup of the crime scene and dispose of additional evidence.

Prosecutors claimed they assisted in the removal of the mattress from the bedroom where Dhesi was shot.

The two accused were said to have helped in the removal of the home security system’s digital video recorder from the Deo residence and to have helped in the disposal of the gun, ammunition and cellphones and other evidence never recovered.

Gurvinder Deo was also alleged to have helped in the removal of a vehicle from the Deo residence that was in the victim’s name.

The Crown’s case was largely circumstantial and they did not call any witnesses who were present in the vehicles, the Deo residence or a Vancouver condo where Harjot Deo spent the remainder of the night. There were also no witnesses from the scenes of the BMW and mattress fires.

The evidence the Crown used to make its case included security camera footage from a residence across the street from the Deo home that was of a generally poor quality, traffic camera footage and photos, and cellphone evidence including cellphone sites.

The defence argued that there was no evidence to show that the accused gained any knowledge of the manslaughter and that there were other possible explanations for their conduct.

In reaching her verdict, the judge found that the Crown had not proven that the only reasonable inference was that the accused were assisting Harjot Deo to cover up the crime.

For example, the judge said the accused may not have known of the teen’s death due to the thorough, continuing cleaning in the residence. It was possible that Harjot Deo called his brother, confessed to manslaughter and asked for help in escaping liability for the crime, but that was not the only reasonable inference based on the evidence, concluded the judge.

kfraser@postmedia.com