Twenty-three-year-old Archie LePretre is tended to after being attacked on March 22, 2011, while playing basketball with his cousin in the playground at Stewart Wood elementary. LePretre died later in hospital.
Dave Eagles/KTW file photo
Travis Johnny (left) has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
Two men have pleaded guilty to reduced charges in relation to a gang-related 2011 murder in a downtown Kamloops schoolyard.
Travis Johnny and Anthony Scotchman entered guilty pleas in B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Both had been charged with one count each of first-degree murder and commission of an offence for a criminal organization — alleged to be the Redd Alert street gang — stemming from the March 22, 2011, slaying of Archie LePretre.
In exchange for the guilty pleas, the Crown dropped the criminal-organization charges. Johnny, 26, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, which carries an automatic sentence of life in prison, while Scotchman, 28, admitted to manslaughter.
LePretre, 23, was playing basketball in the Stuart Wood elementary schoolyard with his cousin when he was attacked by three masked assailants wielding knives and a baseball bat, police said at the time.
Mounties held a press conference at which they labelled the murder “gang-related,” saying it had been the result of a conflict between members of rival criminal organizations.
“Police have established that Archie Lepretre and his cousin were victims of a focused, targeted, gang-related attack,” Kamloops RCMP Staff Sgt. Grant Learned said at the time.
“The suspects are believed to be from a known rival gang.”
Anthony Scotchman has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
LePretre’s family, however, said he was not involved with a gang.
A Vancouver resident, LePretre was in Kamloops visiting family when he was killed.
Johnny was arrested and charged in December 2013. Scotchman wasn’t arrested until April 2014.
Johnny is slated to return to court on March 10 to find out how long he will serve behind bars before becoming eligible for parole. Scotchman’s sentencing hearing is scheduled to take place the following day.
