A Crown prosecutor made closing submissions at the trial of two men charged in a 2022 Whistler double murder on Wednesday
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Two men charged in a 2022 Whistler double murder should be convicted on compelling circumstantial evidence, including the blood of one of the dead men found on their clothing, a Crown prosecutor said in closing submissions Wednesday.
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Don Montrichard told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Miriam Gropper and 12 jurors that the evidence at the murder trial of Gursimran Sahota and Tanvir Khakh links both men to the fatal shooting of Meninder Dhaliwal on July 24, 2022.
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Montrichard said CCTV footage from outside Whistler’s Sundial Hotel at 12:18 p.m. that day shows the shooter the Crown says is Sahota firing the fatal shot at the second victim, Satindera Gill.
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At the beginning of Wednesday’s proceedings, Gropper explained to jurors that a new indictment had been sworn, with both men now facing a single count of first-degree murder in Dhaliwal’s death and only Sahota now charged with second-degree murder in Gill’s death. The original indictment included two counts of first-degree murder against both men.
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Montrichard summarized the key evidence at the trial, which heard from 15 witnesses including Sundial Hotel staff, tourists who witnesses the aftermath of the killings, RCMP officers and forensic specialists.
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He said the hotel video showed the killers, wearing black clothing, caps and medical masks, focusing their shots on Dhaliwal, even standing over him as he lay on the pavement after leaving the hotel where he and friends had been staying. Two shots struck Gill, one of which was fatal, Montrichard noted.
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Just 37 minutes after the shooting, Sahota and Khakh were arrested, along with three others in a black Chrysler 200 sedan travelling southbound in Squamish — the same type of vehicle a witness described seeing at the site of the burning getaway vehicle in which the two guns used in the attack were found, Montrichard said.
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“We know that of the five men who were in the Black Chrysler 200 and arrested in Squamish, only two of them tested positive for gunshot residue on both of their hands and faces. Those were Mr. Sahota and Mr. Khakh,” Montrichard said. “The same two men who the Crown says were wearing clothing that matches what the shooters at the Sundial Hotel were wearing, and the same two men who have Mr. Dhaliwal’s DNA and, in some instances, his blood on their pants and shoes.”
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He pointed out that the gunshot residue is easily transferable and wouldn’t be enough to convict Sahota, 28, and Khakh, 24, if it was the only evidence against the accused.
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“What the Crown does say is, when you consider the gunshot residue evidence in combination with the DNA evidence and the clothing worn by Mr. Sahota and Mr. Khakh, the Crown says that you can readily conclude that it is more than a reasonable inference that Mr. Sahota and Mr. Khakh are the two men who carried out the shootings at the Sundial Hotel on July 24, 2022. At that point, it is the Crown’s submission that you are well beyond any reasonable doubt.”
