KAMLOOPS, B.C. — Friends and family of a Lower Mainland man killed in downtown Kamloops more than five years ago after being caught in the crossfire of a violent gang war gasped in court on Tuesday after hearing his killer texted “LMAO” after being told his deadly attack killed an innocent bystander.
Travis Johnny is expected to be sentenced on Wednesday. Lawyers spent most of the day on Tuesday arguing about how long the 27-year-old should spend behind bars.
Johnny pleaded guilty last year to second-degree murder relating to the March 2011 stabbing death of Archie Lepretre, who was attacked in broad daylight while playing basketball with his cousin outside Stuart Wood elementary.
Johnny and two others — Anthony Scotchman and Chris David — attacked Lepretre, 23, and his cousin, Shaa Tremblay. Johnny, Scotchman and David were members of the Redd Alert street gang, court has heard, while Tremblay was affiliated with the rival Game Tight Soldiers gang.
Lepretre lived in Richmond, while Johnny and Scotchman were also from the Lower Mainland. They were in Kamloops to celebrate the birth of Scotchman’s child, the mother of whom was Tremblay’s sister.
“Because Scotchman was a member of the RA gang and Tremblay was a member of the GTS gang, this caused tension between the two families beyond the gang rivalry,” reads an agreed statement of facts.
Court heard Johnny and other Redd Alert gangsters had been on the lookout for GTS members over a period of days prior to the attack on Lepretre. Text-message conversations obtained by police show Johnny and another Redd Alert member were “hunting” for GTS “faggots.”
The attack took place just before 5 p.m. on March 22, 2011. Court heard the three attackers entered the fenced-in Stuart Wood basketball court armed, cornering Lepretre and Tremblay.
Scotchman and David took on Tremblay while Johnny attacked Lepretre armed with a knife in each hand, “punching” the unarmed business-school graduate with the weapons before mounting him and delivering a fatal stab to his neck.
An autopsy showed Lepretre suffered a total of eight stab wounds. His cause of death was blood loss due to a severed artery in his neck.
Court heard Johnny showed no remorse in a text conversation with his then-girlfriend following Lepretre’s murder.
“Archie wasn’t even GTS n Shaw (Tremblay) walked away,” the woman texted. “F–k some real down brothers u got.”
“Lmao,” Johnny replied. “If u roll it em u go down wit em. It was just a msg to all of them. Lmao.”
“Your stupid,” the woman texted back.
“Lmao THAT’S how I roll babycakes,” Johnny replied.
(LMAO is an acronym commonly used online and in text message meaning “laughing my ass off.”)
Friends and family of Lepretre could be heard to gasp when the LMAO texts were read in the courtroom.
Crown prosecutor Peter Favell said investigators eventually seized a red SUV being driven by Scotchman and found blood on the vehicle’s weather stripping, including DNA from both Johnny and Lepretre.
Johnny’s guilty plea to second-degree murder carries an automatic sentence of life in prison, but Favell is asking for a period of parole ineligibility between 14 and 15 years. Defence lawyer Don Campbell is seeking a period of 11 to 12 years.
A decision from B.C. Supreme Court Justice Dev Dley is expected on Wednesday.
Johnny and Scotchman had been expected to stand trial in B.C. Supreme Court on charges of first-degree murder and committing an offence for a criminal organization. They entered surprise guilty pleas in November, Johnny to second-degree murder and Scotchman to manslaughter, and the Crown is no longer proceeding on the criminal-organization charges.
At a hearing in March, Scotchman was given a seven-year sentence for manslaughter.
Johnny has been in custody since December 2013. Scotchman was arrested in early 2014. David was never charged and is believed to be living in Manitoba.
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