Sean Michael Heickert was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2007 shooting death of Thompson gang leader Bekim Zeneli in a Winnipeg courtroom on Wednesday but his co-accused, Kevin Denny Moose, who was facing a charge of manslaughter, was acquitted by Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench Justice Brenda Keyser, who heard the evidence against the two men in a Thompson courtroom in November.
Zeneli, who was 33 at the time of his death, was killed in an Eastwood townhouse on Dec. 7, 2007, dying from two gunshot wounds. At the time of his death, according to friends and associates of the victim and Heickert, as well as police witnesses, there was tension between the two men because Zeneli was trying to re-assert control over the Thompson drug trade. Each man had made death threats to the other, according to witnesses.
Court heard from Anil Khokhar, a childhood friend of Zeneli's and fellow drug dealer, who was a member of the LHS (Loyalty, Honour, Silence) started by Zeneli and his brother, that Heickert, a Hells Angles associate, had called Khokhar several times on the night of the killing, looking for Zeneli and saying he wanted to talk to him. Khokhar was the person who notified police of the murder, after finding Zeneli's body on the floor of a Brandon Crescent townhouse upon returning home from driving his taxi at about 11 p.m. on the night of the killing.
Evidence linking Heickert to the killing included glass fragments from his shoes made from the same type of glass as a smashed coffee table at the crime scene, and traces of gunshot residue discovered on his jacket. A witness also testified that Heickert had told him he was the one who shot Zeneli. The gun used in the killing, which prosecutors said was the same gun used in the non-fatal shooting of Devon Gurniak less than one month earlier, was never found.
"This is a case where the evidence points conclusively to Heickert as the perpetrator of the crime and excludes any reasonable hypothesis of innocence," said Keyser while delivering the verdict, the Winnipeg Sun reported.
Moose was alleged to have provided Heickert with the weapon used in the killing, though Moose claimed it had been stolen in a break-and-enter at the house where he was staying in Winnipeg. A fingerprint belonging to Moose was found on one of six shell casings recovered from the townhouse where Heickert was killed, though experts testified it was impossible to say definitively how long the fingerprint had been there.
Heickert was arrested hours after the killing of Zeneli but later released because police felt they didn't have enough evidence to lay charges. He was arrested and charged with Zeneli's murder on Oct. 7, 2008 and has been in custody since then, a period of approximately four years and three months for which he may be eligible for up to double credit for time served.
Heickert was wounded in a drive-by shooting on Purdue Avenue in Eastwood on Aug. 20, 2008, not far from the residence where Zeneli was killed.
The day after Heickert was arrested and charged with Zeneli's murder, his brother James Heickert and Thompson residents Stanley Anthony Lucovic and Dean Gurniak pleaded guilty to having conspired to commit an aggravated assault on Sean Heickert in a plea bargain that saw more serious charges of conspiring to murder him dropped.
Sean Heickert previously served time in prison for manslaughter in connection with the 1994 death of an Ontario man. Two co-accused were convicted of first-degree murder in that case.
