When Wolfpack hitman Dean Wiwchar walked into the lobby of Vancouver’s Sheraton Wall Centre to execute rival Sandip Duhre in 2012, he showed “an outrageous and shockingly casual disregard the sanctity of life,” a B.C. Supreme Court judge said Friday.

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“That nobody else was caught in the crossfire at the execution of Mr. Duhre in a busy public restaurant in a high-end hotel in downtown Vancouver … is nothing short of miracle,” Justice Kathleen Ker said as she sentenced Wiwchar to 20 years in prison.

Vancouver Wall Centre hitman sentenced to 20 years in prison Back to video

“Regrettably, the Lower Mainland has been and continues to be afflicted by the fallout from ongoing gang rivalries, turf disputes and, at times, seemingly overt warfare on its streets.”

Wiwchar entered a surprise guilty plea on Oct. 30 to two counts of conspiracy to commit murder – one for the Duhre slaying on Jan. 17, 2012 and a second for plotting to kill Sukhveer Dhak months later.

Dhak was shot to death in November 2012 by an unknown gunman.

Wiwchar, who had also been hired to kill Dhak, had been arrested for a Toronto murder before Dhak was killed, so was unable to complete the B.C. job.

Ker noted that the Wolfpack wanted to kill both Duhre and Dhak for their perceived link to the United Nations gangsters who murdered Jonathan Bacon and injured his associate, Hells Angel Larry Amero, and three others in Kelowna in August 2011.

Amero and Rabih Alkhalil, both Wolfpack members, were earlier convicted for their roles in the Duhre and Dhak conspiracies.

While Wiwchar originally faced a first-degree murder charge for shooting Duhre, that count was stayed Friday. But he is already serving a life sentence for the Toronto murder of John Raposo, though he is appealing that conviction.

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Ker also sentenced Wiwchar to 18 years for the Dhak conspiracy, to be served concurrently.

The Vancouver courtroom was packed for the sentencing, with friends and relatives of both Duhre and Dhak in the gallery. Also present were police and prosecutors who had worked on the long-running case.

Ker noted that the Duhre murder came 4½ years after the devastating 2007 Surrey Six murders, where six men were shot to death in a Surrey high-rise on the orders of Bacon’s younger brother Jamie.

“The circumstances of these offences and Mr. Wiwchar’s involvement in them are about another sad chapter in this sordid, ongoing cycle of bravado, violence and mayhem,” she said.

She said both Surrey Six and the current case involved “rivalries between competing criminal gangs, the need to publicly settle scores, perceived slights or wrongs, challenges to drug lines and their control, and all the related egomaniacal insanity in the gang world that keeps spilling out into the public square of restaurants, cafés and bars as the venues of choice for settling their scores.”

Prosecutors and Wiwchar, who was representing himself, earlier made a joint sentencing submission for the 20 year term in both conspiracies, which Ker accepted Friday.

Not only were those close to Duhre and Dhak affected by the devastating violence, “the shock, outrage and fear caused by Mr. Wiwchar for his role in these offences was felt by everyone in the community,” Ker said.

“Fear is one of the biggest byproducts caused by Mr. Wiwchar’s actions for being the shooter of Mr. Duhre and the hired shooter for Mr. Dhak. The fear is that someone we love may unwittingly be caught and killed in the crossfire as rival gangs take their grievances and desire for revenge to the streets.”

She accepted that Wiwchar was remorseful for his actions and could still be rehabilitated despite spending almost all of his adult life so far in jail and having an “unenviable” criminal record for violent offences.

“While rehabilitation is an objective to be considered and hoped it will be achieved, Mr. Wiwchar’s own personal circumstances suggest that rehabilitation may remain a significant challenge,” she said.

Ker noted that the guilty pleas in the case have saved the court resources that would have been needed for a jury trial that had been expected to run for eight months.

“I have it concluded that imposing the proposed sentence outlined in the joint submission would not bring the administration of justice into disrepute and is not contrary to the public interest,” she said.

kbolan@postmedia.com

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Blueksy: @kimbolan.bsky.social