Murder confession aim of ‘Mr. Big’ operation

Teen tricked into thinking he was joining a criminal gang

A teenage murder suspect was paid $2,000, given free meals, and use of a condominium and a video game console as undercover RCMP officers tried to convince him he was being recruited into a criminal gang, court heard Friday.

The youth, who cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was the target of a “Mr. Big” operation, where an undercover officer attempts to elicit information from a suspect under the pretence he is being recruited into a criminal organization.

At the time, in early 2012, murder charges against the teen had been dropped in the investigation into the deaths of Susan Trudel, 50, and Barry Boenke, 68, at her Ardrossan-area home on May 31, 2009. He was released after a police statement in his case was ruled inadmissible. RCMP investigators launched the undercover sting to gain enough information to bring the charges back. It worked, and the teen confessed the killings to them several times.

Court has heard officers befriended the teen while posing as low-level members of the gang. Eventually, as the teen supposedly proved his worth, he got to meet the boss. The officer who played the boss was on the witness stand Friday. His real name is banned from publication, as are other undercover officers.

“So you’re the man with all the power and all the money?” defence lawyer Mona Duckett asked. “Correct,” the officer said with a smile.

Court heard that at the time of the undercover operation, the teen’s life was a shambles. He was a ward of the government but was not under any care, had no high school education and didn’t attend classes, had no permanent residence and barely any money. He told officers he had been sexually abused by an uncle.

“Even when he was telling me he’d killed people, he was in a great mood.”

POLICE OFFICER

At the time, Duckett told court, he was in a relationship with a married employee of the Yellowhead Youth Centre where he was once held.

When the officers offered him a place in their gang, the teen eagerly leaped for it.

“He seemed like he was in a jovial mood, laughing and joking, he seemed very happy,” one officer testified. “We were friends at this point. It almost seemed like he didn’t care what we were doing. He just wanted to be with us. Even when he was telling me he’d killed people, he was in a great mood.”

The officers made a point of telling the teen he would get acceptance and respect with them that he’d never had before. The teen would be paid for menial jobs like cleaning a warehouse or going on trips with the officers for some fictional purpose. They gave him a video game console and said he needed to test it to make sure it worked before they sold others they stole. The teen was paid roughly $2,000 for his work, officers told court.

The undercover Mounties also bought him meals, clothes, took him to the Rocky Mountains and to his first concert. “He was so excited to be at that concert,” one officer remembered.

The teen was 14 at the time of the killings, 16 when befriended by undercover officers and is now 17 at his trial on two charges of second-degree murder. Court has already heard recordings of the teen repeatedly confessing the killings of Trudel and Boenke, though his story changed each time. In one version he was a hit man paid by a mysterious acquaintance to kill the two neighbours. In another, the pair were the first people he encountered after fleeing a nearby group home and stealing a gun. He killed them “just because,” he said in that version. In all of his confessions to police, the teen said he shot and bludgeoned Trudel and Boenke before stealing Boenke’s truck and heading into Edmonton.

The trial continues.