Missing plotter could have been killer in Manzo murder, defense says

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A lawyer for accused killer Richard Reed says a man who met with his client shortly before a 2020 Richmond murder could be the gunman in the targeted execution of an alleged money launderer.

Kevin Westell said in his closing submissions Tuesday that Gordon Ma, captured on video with Reed in the vicinity of Richmond’s Manzo restaurant on Sept. 18, 2020, could be the current killer.

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Westell told BC Supreme Court Justice Jeanne Watchuk that much of the circumstantial evidence linking Reed to the slaying of Jian Jin Zhu and the injuring of his associate Paul Jin, also implicates Ma.

Reed is on trial for one count of first-degree murder, one of attempted murder, and three lesser charges.

Ma’s name has been mentioned throughout the four-week trial, but he was not called as a witness. Sources told Postmedia that his current whereabouts of him are unknown.

“We say that a finding that Ma may have been the shooter is available on the evidentiary record,” Westell said. “It’s one that’s both reasonable and plausible. After all, in the Crown’s theory, he is part of the plot to kill whoever is meant to be killed in that restaurant.”

He noted that a key part of the Crown’s case — a distinctive Calvin Klein striped hoodie that Reed was seen wearing just 13 minutes before the shooting — belonged to Ma. In fact, he had been captured on video earlier in the day wearing the shirt that was later found partly burned at the house of another alleged conspirator on Bowcock Road in Richmond.

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Westell said Ma was “part of the plan. He’s in the mix. He’s in the area. “It’s his sweatshirt.”

Just because Reed was captured on video wearing the shirt, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t given back to Ma before the 7:35 pm shooting, Westell said.

“Why or how Ma’s shirt ended up on defendant’s body is unknown. However inexplicable, no one can validly suggest that transfer didn’t happen. We know it did. So as a matter of logic, it simply cannot be a fanciful, implausible or unreasonable proposition that the shirt ended up back on the body of its owner, Gordon Ma, sometime that evening,” Westell said.

“Crown cannot dispute beyond a reasonable doubt that Ma shot both Jin and Zhu. In other words, the defendant’s guilt is not the only reasonable interpretation of the whole of the evidence,” Westell told Watchuk.

He also pointed to gaps in the video evidence the Crown presented in court, including a few minutes right before the shooting. The actual shooter is not captured firing the Norinco handgun although a wisp of smoke can be seen in one of the video clips right after the gunshots.

“Those gaps are a key to the defense’s theory,” Westell said.

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The firearm used in the shooting, as well as a loaded magazine with Reed’s fingerprint on it, were found in the bedroom of the accused during a police search in November 2020.

But Westell said that just because Reed had the gun, doesn’t mean he killed Zhu.

“Possessing the firearm two months after the shooting tells us nothing about who the shooter was,” Westell said, noting there was evidence at the trial that Reed was a drug dealer in 2020.

“It would not be unnatural for a drug dealer to possess a firearm,” he argued.

Westell also replayed video from inside the Manzo leading up to the shooting showing that Jin, the second victim, had been sitting beside Zhu, but moved to another area and appeared to be shielded by his two bodyguards.

He suggested Jin may have known the shooting was about to occur.

“Mr. Jin is moved out of harm’s way seconds before bullets came flying through the window,” Westell said. “This is a coincidence that he is too suspicious to take for granted.”

Crown prosecutor Mark Wolf responded briefly to Westell’s closing by pointing out that Reed was considerably taller than Ma and has to be the one captured on video running behind a fence after the shooting with the top of his head visible.

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“My friend’s theory has not addressed how Mr. Ma could have been tall enough to be seen behind that fence,” Wolf said.

Watchuk reserved his decision in the judge-alone case.

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