BIKER NEWS: ‘He’s dead in the road’: court hears from shooting witness

BIKER NEWS -- Judson Carter was close. And close just doesn't count with horse shoes and hand grenades. It doesn't count with licence plates either.

Moments after the 29-year-old Kenilworth Avenue North resident witnessed the gruesome shotgun murder of ex-Hells Angel Lou Malone, he was able to get most of the licence plate of the vehicle in the attack.

Just two hours after the Nov. 9, 2013, murder, Carter told police he believed the plate on the grey Dodge Ram pickup the two assailants drove off in was 658 4AY.

Police ran the plate. Plate number 658 4RY was registered to a grey 2005 Dodge Ram pickup truck owned by John Josipovic of Grimsby.

Josipovic and his younger brother, Mike, have pleaded not guilty to the first-degree slaying of Malone.

Carter told the jury he saw one man exit the pickup truck close to Carter's second-storey Kenilworth Avenue apartment and hit a fleeing man in the head with a shotgun.

"The running man went down and he was shot in the back of the head," Carter testified.

He said the end of the barrel of the gun was six to eight inches from the victim's head when the shot was fired.

Carter's 911 call, which came through at 1:26 a.m., was played to the jury.

"I just saw two guys driving a giant pickup truck chasing this guy, shooting about six shotgun shells at the guy.

"He got him right in front of my house and he shot. He f------ hit him in the face with a gun and shot him right in the side of the head with a shotgun. He's dead in the road in front of my house right now," Carter told the operator.

Carter testified he was watching a program on his tablet when he heard a boom from the street "that nearly knocked me off my bed."

"I saw a man coming northbound toward me. He was on the sidewalk trying a few door handles. He was bleeding from one side of his head," Carter testified.

He said a pickup truck came from a side street. He said he saw man leaning out the passenger side of the vehicle armed with a long rifle or shotgun. He was shooting at the man on foot. Carter said at one point, the truck stopped in front of the man.

"Someone got out of the truck and ran up to the man. The gun jammed. I heard the gun lock up. It looked like a long-barrel shotgun," the witness testified.

Carter told court the man with the gun hopped back into the truck. He said it appeared the two men in the truck tried to run down the victim, but he jumped up onto the sidewalk.

Carter said the man with the gun exited the vehicle again. He said there was a scuffle between him and the victim before the latter was knocked in the head by the barrel of the gun and fell to the sidewalk.

After making the 911 call, Carter said he went to the shot man.

"I was telling him to hold on and that an ambulance was on the way. He made a noise, then his eyes rolled back in his head. He was gone," he told court.

Also on Friday, forensic pathologist Dr. Allison Edgecombe said Malone was grazed by a shotgun blast earlier as he walked his two pit bulls on Robins Avenue.

Earlier evidence indicated Malone, 49, was chased by two men in a pickup truck to Kenilworth Avenue just south of Hope Street where he was killed.

The trial, before Ontario Superior Court Justice Harrison Arrell, continues Monday.

This article was first published on NOV 28, 2015

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