Closing arguments underway for accused in Richmond restaurant murder
CTV
Closing arguments are underway in the trial of a man accused of killing an alleged money launderer and wounding his associate at a Richmond, B.C., restaurant in September 2020.
Closing arguments are underway in the trial of a man accused of killing an alleged money launderer and wounding his associate at a Richmond, B.C., restaurant in September 2020.
Richard Reed has pleaded not-guilty to first-degree-murder and attempted murder in B.C. Supreme Court.
He is being tried by judge only.
Crown prosecutors allege Reed fired seven shots into Manzo restaurant, with one of the bullets striking and killing Jian Jun Zhu and multiple others wounding his associate Paul Jin.
Jin was the subject of a civil forfeiture lawsuit filed in March 2019, which accused him of using the proceeds of crime to buy a Richmond building that houses a mixed martial arts gym called World Champion Club.
Zhu was accused in civil forfeiture documents of laundering hundreds of million of dollars through a Richmond company in a scheme involving B.C. casinos.
During Crown's closing arguments Monday, prosecutor Mark Wolf invited the court to find Reed not guilty on the attempted murder charge – due to a ruling from Justice Jeanne Watchuk that part of the testimony provided by a friend of Reed's was inadmissible.