By Brian Daly, The Associated Press
Montreal (CP) -- Two high-ranking Hells Angels from Ontario encouraged the murders of rival bikers by awarding promotions for the killings, their trial was told on Tuesday.
Crown prosecutor Randall Richmond said Walter Stadnick and Donald Stockford, both of Hamilton, Ont., personally approved several such promotions while running the notorious Nomads chapter of the Hells.
“Every time they promoted someone who killed someone, they were indirectly encouraging that person,” Richmond said during closing arguments.
“They’re saying, `thank you’ and they’re encouraging others to do the same.”
Stadnick, who the Crown says was the second-highest ranking member of the Nomads, has been charged with 13 counts of first-degree murder and three of attempted murder.
He and Stockford also face charges of gangsterism, drug trafficking, conspiracy to traffic drugs and conspiracy to commit murder.
The two men lived in the Hamilton area in 2001 when police arrested dozens of Hells Angels and associates in a massive sweep that crippled the gang.
Most of the arrests took place in Quebec, but Stadnick and Stockford were picked up in Ontario.
The Crown said both men ran the Nomads out of Montreal in the mid-to-late 1990s as the group expanded its reach across Canada while killing rival Rock Machine members.
Richmond also mentioned the names of two Hells members, Andre (Toots) Tousignant and Paul (Fon Fon) Fontaine, he said were promoted to the Nomads after the killings of two prison guards.
“According to club rules, Stadnick and Stockford would have had to approve that (pair of promotions),” said Richmond.
Guards Pierre Rondeau and Diane Lavigne were shot to death in separate Montreal-area ambushes in 1997. Nomads leader Maurice (Mom) Boucher is serving a life sentence for ordering the murders.
The biker war between the Hells and the Rock Machine claimed the lives of 164 people, including innocent bystanders, between 1994 and 2001. The gangs have since been gutted by police raids.
Stadnick and Stockford sat stone-faced in the prisoner’s dock, clad in dark clothing, as Richmond listed off the names of about a dozen bikers who were killed between 1995 and 2001.
Richmond said the killings were directly related to a plan by the Nomads to take over Montreal drug territory from the Rock Machine, now known as the Bandidos.
Stadnick and Stockford also had a larger plan involving “recruitment (of bikers) in Ontario and Manitoba ... to take control of the drug market all across Canada.”
The pair managed to separate themselves from the high-profile Montreal mega-trials of their fellow gang members because they insisted on being tried in English.