A B.C. Supreme Court judge has convicted an accused hitman of the targeted 2020 execution of an alleged money launderer linked to organized crime.
Justice Jeanne Watchuk said Wednesday that Crown prosecutors had presented enough evidence during the spring trial to convince her that Richard Reed was the gunman who killed Jian Jun Zhu at the Manzo Restaurant in Richmond on Sept. 18, 2020.
Watchuk said that Reed was clearly the shooter who wore a distinctive striped Calvin Klein hoodie as he began casing the restaurant about 25 minutes before the 7:35 p.m. murder.
Reed’s lawyer Kevin Westell had suggested in closing arguments in May that Reed, despite admitting to scouting out the Manzo before the shooting, could have given the black-and-white hoodie to his associate Gordon Ma before the murder.
But Watchuk said that despite short gaps in some of the CCTV footage, she concluded “on the balance of probabilities that Mr. Reed is the shooter.”
“The striking similarity in the appearance of the shooter and Mr. Reed, along with Mr. Reed’s acknowledged presence at the scene leads to the conclusion that Mr. Reed is the shooter,” Watchuk said. “There are no reasonable alternative inferences that can be drawn.”
The killer used a Norinco handgun to fire seven shots through the restaurant’s front window, hitting Zhu in the back of the head with the first shot.
Watchuk said it is clear that Zhu was the intended target, while the other six shots were fired randomly into the restaurant. One injured Zhu’s associate, Paul King Jin, another man identified by the B.C. government as a money launderer.
Both men were at a dinner party of 12 that night organized by a man named Jack Qin who testified at the trial. Qin was later injured in a Vancouver shooting. Another dinner guest named Jin Cai was also later killed.
Watchuk noted the gun used to kill Zhu was found under the bed in Reed’s rented room on Nov. 28, 2020, along with a loaded magazine with his fingerprint on it.
“The Crown has proven the element of identity beyond a reasonable doubt. I find that Mr. Reed was the person who was the shooter who killed Mr. Zhu,” Watchuk said.
She also concluded the murder was planned and deliberate, given that Reed waited until it after it got dark before firing into the restaurant on Capstan Way.
Watchuk said that others were likely part of the murder plot, including Ma who gave the hoodie to Reed and was captured on video with the killer just minutes before the shooting, as well as Cai, who left the dinner early and was in phone contact with Ma while he was with Reed.
“On the totality of the evidence, I find that the Crown has proven the element of planning and deliberation beyond a reasonable doubt,” she said.
She accepted testimony from two of the killer’s friends that Reed had called them later the night of the murder asking for rides — one picked him up near where the hoodie was found partially burned in a Richmond garage, and the other from a Wendy’s parking lot on Cambie in Vancouver.
The friend who picked him up in Vancouver testified that Reed was jittery and told his friend to check the news on his phone. And he showed the friend a picture of Jin with blood on his face.
Westell had argued in his closing submissions that while the evidence showed that Reed was “in the mix,” Ma or someone else could have been the actual killer.
Ma was not called as a witness. Sources told Postmedia that his whereabouts are unknown.
Watchuk said the overwhelming evidence led her to find “Mr. Reed guilty of first-degree murder.”
She also found Reed guilty of both the reckless discharge of a firearm on Sept. 18, 2020 and possession of a restricted or prohibited firearm on Nov. 28, 2020.
Reed appeared stoic as Watchuk asked him to stand. He hugged both his defence lawyers before being led away.
His sentencing will take place at a later date.