Man Gets 14 Yrs For Killing HA Drug Dealer--Local Media Ignores HAMC Angle To Story
Greg Carr
Killing notorious drug dealer nets man 14 years in prison
Vancouver Sun June 3, 2010 A 28-year-old Vancouver man was
sentenced to 14 years in prison Wednesday for the fatal shooting of a
notorious Downtown Eastside drug dealer two years ago.
Matthew Ryan Wall was originally charged with first-degree murder and
his first trial ended in a hung jury. He pleaded guilty last month to
the lesser included offence of manslaughter because of new evidence of
provocation -- the victim, Earl Seymour, 40, had threatened to kill
Wall if he didn't stay out of Vancouver's downtown area.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Barbara Fisher imposed a 14-year sentence,
but gave Wall double credit for two years served in pre-trial custody,
reducing the sentence to nine and a half years. Seymour, originally
from Nova Scotia, was a well-known drug dealer in the Downtown
Eastside with a reputation for deadly violence.
Police had earlier alleged he headed a gang that operated a
$300,000-per-month crack cocaine operation in Victory Square run out
of a nearby hotel. Police said the gang controlled the Victory Square
area with vicious beatings, intimidation with guns and enforcers who
frequently fired at rival Hispanic drug dealers.
� Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
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N.S.-born drug baron shot dead in Vancouver
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1038729.html
(Comments In Brackets My Own)
By CHRIS LAMBIE Staff Reporter
The Nova Scotia native who was once the kingpin of a Vancouver crack
cocaine ring has been murdered.
Earl Stephen Seymour was shot dead in his minivan Friday night in
downtown Vancouver. The 40-year-old known Hells Angels associate had
been living in the city for several years, but before that he resided
in Bible Hill. He was originally from Glace Bay.
Mr. Seymour had an extensive criminal history that included ordering
the firebombing of the home of a Cape Breton police officer�s
grandmother.
Investigators believe Mr. Seymour�s murder was a targeted shooting.
"A woman was holding the body and crying and screaming, �No, this
can�t be happening,� " photographer Lilith Yakub, who arrived at the
scene minutes after the shooting, told the Vancouver Sun.
For five years starting in the late 1990s, Mr. Seymour ran a gang that
sold crack on Vancouver�s east side. The operation intimidated rivals
with gunfire and beatings. It made $10,000 to $20,000 a day.
Drugs were also bused to dealers in Cape Breton.
In September 2001, Mr. Seymour pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking
and possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.
A B.C. judge imposed a sentence of six years and four months for
cocaine trafficking. The judge also handed Mr. Seymour a concurrent
one-year term for the marijuana charge.
His gang�s main source of income was about $300,000 a month from crack
cocaine.
"This drug trafficking operation was like a business, with Mr. Seymour
being one of the principal movers behind the operation," the
prosecutor told the court.
The judge also sentenced Mr. Seymour, then 34, to a concurrent
three-year term for firebombing the home of the 90-year-old
grandmother of a Cape Breton Regional Police officer on May 21, 2000.
According to a statement of facts filed in the case, Mr. Seymour was
angry after police raided his Nova Scotia home on May 18, 2000, with
guns drawn. The officers forced some of his family members to lie on
the floor.
In retaliation, Mr. Seymour directed two men to lob two Molotov
cocktails through the window of the Glace Bay home of Audrey and
Norris Dowe. One of the bottles ignited and Mr. Dowe burned his feet
trying to put out the fire. Mrs. Dowe � the grandmother of Const.
Kevin Dowe, an undercover drug officer who was involved in the search
of the Seymour residence � was sleeping in the next room, which also
contained an oxygen tank.
As part of a plea agreement, Mr. Seymour agreed to forfeit to the
Crown $740,000 worth of assets purchased with the proceeds of crime,
including the family home at 88 Hidden Valley Dr. in Colchester
County, two 1999 Harley-Davidson motorcycles, a 1999 Corvette, a 1997
all-terrain vehicle, two new snowmobiles, a new travel trailer and
$269,875 in Canadian cash seized by police.
At his trial, Mr. Seymour�s lawyer, Glen Orris, reportedly told the
court his client was one of 11 children who grew up in a Nova Scotia
home where the father abandoned them when Mr. Seymour was five.
His mother drank heavily, forcing the older sisters to raise the
younger siblings, the lawyer added.
Mr. Seymour dropped out of school at 15, worked odd jobs, began
drinking, then took to selling drugs to supplement his income.
The defence lawyer added that Mr. Seymour, who, when he was sentenced,
had four children under the age of six with his common-law wife, felt
shame for causing his family a similar fate as his own fatherless
childhood. He planned to get an honest job when he got out of prison,
Mr. Orris said at the sentencing hearing.
The Vancouver crack cocaine operation was run by Mr. Seymour, his
brother Cliff Seymour and two cousins, Ken and Don Seymour. All of the
men came from Nova Scotia.
On Dec. 30, 2005, a gunman shot two of Mr. Seymour�s cousins in a
rundown Glace Bay neighbourhood known as the Hub.
Kenneth Bradley Seymour, 39, died hours later in hospital.
His brother, Donald Wilfred Seymour, 38, was seriously injured; his
liver and other organs were damaged.
They had both done six years behind bars for being part of the West
Coast cocaine operation.
They were shot over a drug debt by a fellow associate of the Hells
Angels.
Nelson MacPhee of Dominion pleaded guilty to manslaughter and
aggravated assault. Last April, a judge sentenced him to 15 years in
prison.
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This killing took place as a drug war was going on in the Lower
Mainland and the UN drug gang subsequently ended up with 90% of the
turf in the DTES. The loss of this associate was a major blow to the
Hell's Angels in the DTES and the media locally never once mentioned
the Hell's Angels angle to the story.
Downtown shooting, Vancouver's latest homicide
Last Updated: Friday, February 15, 2008 | 10:55 PM PT
CBC News
Vancouver recorded its sixth homicide of 2008 Friday when a man was
shot dead while sitting in his van at the 300 block of Carrall Street
in the city's infamous Downtown Eastside.
The Vancouver Police Department's major crime and forensic
identification teams have launched an investigation into the incident,
which occurred at around 6:30 p.m. The man died at the scene.
A witness told CBC News that he saw a man approach the van, then "boom
boom." The witness told police that before pulling the trigger, the
shooter said, "The war is on."
Police have described the incident as a targeted shooting and said the
man is known to police.
VPD Const. Jana McGuinness said Carrall Street, between East Hastings
and East Cordova was expected to remain closed for several hours.
Read more:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/02/15/bc-homicide.html#ixzz0pr2ZbOOP
Seems Wall was taking sides in the HA war for drug control of the
DTES.