Mike on Crime

By Mike McIntyre
Winnipeg Free Press

A Winnipeg gang member is a free man today after jurors found him not guilty of an “execution” style slaying outside a busy 7-Eleven store in Elmwood.
Daniel Benjamin Kachkan was accused of second-degree murder for the vicious 2005 stabbing death of Aaron Hannibal which occurred in broad daylight and may have been witnessed by more than a dozen people.
Yet none of the so-called eye-witnesses were apparently able to identify the killer, leaving the Crown with very little evidence to call.
Their silence could be connected to the fact both Kachkan and Hannibal were involved with the Zig Zag Crew, the street gang that has ties to the Hells Angels.
Jurors began deliberations late Tuesday afternoon, spent the night sequestered in a hotel and returned with their not guilty verdict around 11 a.m. Wednesday.
“It was the right decision,” Kachkan’s lawyer, Tim Killeen, told the Free Press outside court.
The Crown admitted from the start its case against Kachkan was entirely circumstantial since there was no direct physical or forensic evidence linking him to the slaying.
Prosecutor Gerry Bowering told jurors in closing arguments Monday there was still enough suspicion to render a conviction. He also urged jurors not to consider Hannibal’s criminal connections as a factor in their decision.
“Some people may say that because of his lifestyle he was asking for it. But the person who killed him didn’t commit any less of a murder because of his character,” said Bowering.
“This was an execution.”
Hannibal, 31, suffered 19 separate wounds to his upper body including three which pierced his heart and caused him to quickly bleed out in the convenience store’s parking lot at Talbot Avenue and Watt Street. He collapsed with as many as 15 people surrounding him.
Killeen told jurors there were plenty of unanswered questions, including why not a single apparent witness to the attack was able to identify his client.
“There is a very limited amount of evidence and a lot of speculation here,” he said.
The Crown relied heavily on testimony from Hannibal’s friend who went with him to the 7-Eleven store that day to for an apparent meeting.
The man told court Hannibal appeared agitated and seemed to be preparing for an altercation. He waited around the corner for Hannibal to return and didn’t actually see the fatal attack.
Bowering said an examination of Hannibal’s cell phone revealed he had made two phone calls to Kachkan just prior to the stabbing – which leads the Crown to believe that was who he was meeting.
Kachkan was arrested by police eight days after the killing.
“He was charged based on the circumstantial evidence surrounding these calls,” Bowering told jurors.
Police were never able to find the murder weapon – or Kachkan’s vehicle which went missing after the slaying.