A Surrey man has been found guilty of attempted murder in a 2011 shooting at a Mr. Lube in Coquitlam.
Sukhdeep Singh Poony was also found guilty of extortion, uttering threats, assault with a weapon and possession of a prohibited weapon at a hearing Monday in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster. A date for sentencing will be determined later this spring.
In her decision, Madam Justice Catherine Wedge said the dispute between Poony and the victim, Jaskaran Singh Sandhu, began with a failed drug deal and the loss of 2 kg of cocaine. Poony demanded $80,000 in payment for the lost drugs from Sandhu, and threatened him with increasing debt if he didn’t pay up.
He was also trying to coerce Sandhu to help him with a kidnapping in Surrey as a way of reducing the debt.
The threats escalated in mid-September 2011 when somebody pulled up beside Sandhu on the Knight Street bridge and pointed a gun at him. He later received a text message, which was later confirmed to have come from Poony’s phone, stating, “You are gonna get one in your head, I’m gonna get you.”
On Sept. 28, 2011, Sandhu was standing in front of his vehicle in one of the bays at Mr. Lube on Barnet Highway near Lansdowne Drive just before 1 p.m. when he was shot several times.
A woman who was having coffee nearby ran over to provide first aid, at which point “Sandhu immediately told her he knew who shot him” and that the information was on his phone, Wedge stated.
“The utterance was within minutes and there was no time for concoction,” she added.
Police investigators found a tracking device under Sandhu’s vehicle and later found the box for the device inside Poony’s bedroom. Investigators also found emails and phone records confirming Poony had activated the tracking device, downloaded the manual to his computer and set up the subscription with Tracking World.
Witnesses to the shooting reported seeing the suspect jump through a hedge to a waiting SUV that drove east toward Coquitlam Centre. A cover on the back licence plate was falling off and witnesses reported seeing an Alberta plate.
As the vehicle drove south on Lougheed Highway, several more witnesses called 911 to report a Kia Sorrento with an Alberta plate was driving erratically and dangerously.
The Kia was returned to an Enterprise rental car outlet in Surrey, where it had been rented by a close associate of Poony.
Investigators later found Poony’s fingerprints on a cup inside the car and on the inside of the door. Poony’s fiancée’s business card was also found in the centre console.
Cell phone records show Poony called his associate within minutes of the shooting, in a location near the Mr. Lube. Cell tower and GPS records show Poony’s phone travelling back to the Enterprise location in Surrey.
Wedge stated that surveillance video from Mr. Lube showed Sandhu looked at the shooter, who was a short distance away, and would have been able to positively identify him.
“All the circumstantial evidence corroborates the Crown’s case,” she added.
Wedge said the evidence confirmed that Sandhu and Poony knew each other, that Poony insisted Sandhu owed him money and that Poony was threatening Sandhu, all of which “establishes a motive for Poony to harm Sandhu.”
Sandhu survived the potentially life-threatening injuries in the 2011 shooting but, less than two years later, his body was found near the side of the road in a rural area near the Surrey/Delta border. Police said it was possibly a targeted, gang-related attack.
spayne@tricitynews.com
@spayneTC
