Five Convicted of Murders Face Sentence

Five men connected to a ruthless drug gang known as the Greeks have been convicted of three brutal slayings around Vernon after British Columbia’s longest-ever jury trial.

Peter Manolakos, Dale Sipes, Leslie Podolski, Sheldon O’Donnell and Douglas Brownell had been charged with  killing three men who had run-ins with the gang just before their death.

Sipes and Podolski were found guilty of the first-degree murder in the killing of David Barry Marniuk, who delivered drugs for the Greeks. O’Donnell was convicted of second-degree murder and Manolakos was convicted of manslaughter in the killing of Marniuk. O’Donnell was also convicted of second-degree murder in Thomas Edward Bryce’s death, a rival drug trafficker fighting the Greeks for turf, while the jury found Brownell guilty of manslaughter.

Justice Bill Smart said the killers will be brought back to court Nov. 29, to hear their sentences pronounced. David Jardine, one of the senior prosecutors, expressed gratitude for the jurors’ commitment. “We are extremely pleased and full of admiration for the work that the jury put in 18 months of service that’s over and above the call of duty,” Jardine said. “We are full of appreciation for the work that the jury put it.”

More than 100 Crown witnesses testified at the trial, which was held in the special high-security courtroom built for the Air India bombing case. Twenty-five lawyers were involved in the historic trial.

The RCMP put together a special task force to look into the gang’s activities in 2004 and 2005, resulting in arrests and charges in May 2006. While jurors heard evidence in three murders, the Greek gang members are also suspects in four other slayings in north Okanagan.

A Vernon lawyer connected to the Greeks is due to go to trial in January on criminal organization charges.

(Source: The Vancouver Sun)