The Jonathan Bacon murder trial continued on Thursday, with the courtroom hearing from the man that tried to save the Red Scorpion gangster’s life after he got shot.
Vaughn Smeltzer testified he was the first person to approach the Porsche Cayenne Bacon, Larry Amero, James Riach and two women had been sitting in outside the Delta Grand Hotel.
Smeltzer said he had seen the August 14, 2011 shooting from the front passenger seat of a car his friend, Dianne Hofer, was driving, on Cawston Rd. towards the hotel. Hofer testified at the trial on Wednesday.
They U-turned to avoid the gunfire, but after seeing the gunmen speed past them in a Ford, Smeltzer testified he recommended they go back to the hotel to help potential victims.
Leaving Hofer and his 11-year-old son behind in the car, Smeltzer said he approached the white SUV he had seen the gunmen target and saw 3 people inside, including Hell’s Angels Amero, who was in the driver’s seat.
“The driver of the vehicle was awake, appeared to be in shock, just kinda staring forward” he said.
“I noticed blood on his shirt and on his lap. I said ‘are you hit?’ He just looked at me. I said ‘put your hand on your stomach and hold it there.’”
He then turned his attention to two injured women, Lyndsey Black and Leah Hadden-Watts, who were in the back.
“The one on the passenger side was sitting up. I quickly looked at her and said ‘can you breathe?’ [She] took a breath and looked at me and I said ‘are you ok?’ and she didn’t reply but she was breathing and alert.”
Hadden-Watts, who was paralyzed in the attack, was lying in the back with her head against the hip of Black.
“I said ‘are you ok?’ I touched her on the shoulder, she said ‘I can’t feel anything’ there was blood on her back, she was breathing.”
Smeltzer said he then took a step back and saw Bacon, who was lying face down in the ground, behind the vehicle, near the passenger’s side.
“I approached him, checked him for a pulse. There was no pulse.”
He told the courtroom he turned Bacon over onto his back.
“He was struggling for breath, he was attempting to breathe, his body was rising, his shoulders were hunching forward. He was unable to breath, did not have a pulse. I checked again, I pulled his shirt up, I saw a couple holes in him.”
Smeltzer said he then started to perform CPR on Bacon.
“I could hear sucking sound. I lifted the victim’s left arm and there was a large wound in his arm pit and as I compressed his chest, air was escaping so I stuck my knee in there.”
When paramedics arrived, Smeltzer said he told them to help the other victims, and he continued to give chest compressions to Bacon, whose condition seemed to be improving.
Smeltzer said he probably performed CPR on Bacon for a total of 20 to 30 minutes, until two paramedics took over.
Jujhar Khun-Khun, Michael Jones, and Jason McBride are on trial for 7 charges, including murder and attempted murder.
The trial is expected to last 10 months, however a judge is still considering an application from the three men to have charges dropped because it's taken too long to go to trial.
Justice Allan Betton said he's expecting to make a decision on Monday.