Photo: RCMP

Ford Explorer used by gunmen who killed Jonathan Bacon. 

A former close friend of one of the accused in the Jonathan Bacon gang slaying took the stand Tuesday, testifying against his former partner in crime.

Witness A, one of several whose identities are protected under a publication ban, said he has known Michael Jones for many years, and got involved in the drug trade on the Sunshine Coast with him in 2005.

Jones, Jason McBride and Jujhar Khun-Khun are facing first-degree and attempted murder charges for the Aug. 14, 2011, shooting that left the gang leader dead and several others wounded.

Justice Allan Betton must still determine the admissibility of Witness A's testimony.

Witness A told the court he and Jones would travel to Surrey to pick up cocaine from a man named Manny and bring it back to the Sunshine Coast, where it was sold to dealers.

In January 2013, gangster Manny Hairan was shot and killed in Surrey, and Khun-Khun was injured. The two also survived a targeted shooting in 2011, which police believed was in retaliation to the Bacon murder.

Witness A said Jones eventually moved to Richmond and was driving a dark green Ford Explorer at the time. Witnesses previously testified the gunmen who shot Bacon made off in a dark-coloured Ford SUV that was later found torched on a gravel road in Lake Country.

Following the Kelowna shooting, Witness A said Jones bought a Volkswagen.

“I asked him what happened to the Explorer that he had. He gave me a short answer. He told me 'It's gone, I burned it,'” Witness A testified. “I didn't ask him any more about it.”

The witness said he and Jones spent “almost every day” together in 2012.

During this time, Jones introduced Witness A to McBride, whose nickname was “White Boy."

Witness A said that on a later occasion, someone commented on Jones' reckless driving, and Jones replied that on "the Kelowna trip," McBride was "freaked out" by Jones' driving. 

Witness A is currently incarcerated and has signed a limited immunity agreement that protects him from prosecution on the crimes he admitted to in his testimony.