Nicole Herman was hysterical and terrified in the days following her partner’s disappearance and death in March 2016, a B.C. Supreme Court jury heard Thursday.
And it took her five years to tell the Crown that Dillon Brown had arranged to meet “Ricky” on the afternoon of March 10, 2016.
“I was scared for my life. I said these people would probably kill me if they knew I was talking to police,” said Herman, testifying for a second day at Richard Alexander’s trial for the first-degree murder of Brown, a 30-year-old mixed martial arts fighter.
Alexander, the former president of the Devil’s Army Motorcycle Club, has pleaded not guilty to the murder.
The trial is being held under heavy security at the Victoria courthouse.
The jury has heard that Herman had been in an on-again, off-again relationship with Brown since they met in high school in 2008.
The couple had one son and were expecting another when Brown was shot to death and his body was stuffed in the trunk of his car. The abandoned vehicle was found at the side of the road 75 kilometres north of Campbell River on March 12, 2016.
During cross-examination, defence lawyer Brent Anderson asked Herman why she withheld the name “Ricky” in her police statements.
Brown had told her he was going to meet “Ricky” to resolve a lawsuit against the Voodoo Lounge in Campbell River. He believed he would receive $11,000 for injuries he received in a fight with bikers at the Voodoo Lounge in November 2015, in exchange for dropping his civil suit.
In a statement to police on March 12, Herman told police she didn’t know who he was going to meet, Anderson said.
“I don’t know names. If I knew more, I would tell you but I don’t,” Herman said in her statement.
In her March 13 statement, an officer told her it was really important to know the names of anyone involved, Anderson noted.
“I wish I could give you everything. I want to know probably more than you do … I just don’t know,” she told the officer.
“At no point, whatsoever in the statements you gave police do you reference the name ‘Ricky,’ ” said Anderson.
“Correct,” Herman replied. “I didn’t want a target on my back. I have children to protect.”
The first time Herman mentioned the name “Ricky Alexander” to the Crown was in March 2021, five years after Brown’s murder, said Anderson.
“After he was arrested,” she agreed.
The jury also listened to the testimony of Michael Behm, the former owner of the Voodoo Lounge. His testimony was recorded on April 21, 2021 at a previous trial.
Behm testified that the liquor board compelled him to install a system to scan IDs before people entered the bar.
Before the scanning system was installed, members of the Devil’s Army would come to the lounge.
Behm would sometimes socialize with them, he testified. He went to their clubhouse a couple of times and was “very friendly” with Alexander.
But the provincial bar scanning program required Behm, as a condition of his liquor licence, to commit to not allow people to wear gang colours, vests and insignias into the bar.
“Rick expressed his concern,” Behm testified. “I was concerned about losing customers. Mine was completely from a monetary position where Rick’s was from … identity issues with their images not being able to show on their jackets and staff.”
This meant the Devil’s Army would no longer be able to wear their vests and other insignia of the club in the bar.
“How did Mr. Alexander express his disappointment?” asked Crown prosecutor Lorne Phipps.
“By not coming back,” Behm replied. “He wasn’t friendly after that. I was indifferent. I knew I had done nothing wrong. I had lived up to my obligations as a business owner.”
Members of the Devil’s Army would still come to the club in the springtime for fishing trips around the May long weekend, he testified.
Behm said he knew of Brown, but had never met him or talked to him. He knew about the fight from his manager and gave his permission for Brown to receive a copy of surveillance video.
But Brown wasn’t happy with the angles of the video and what it revealed, he recalled. “It didn’t meet his needs.”
Behm said he was not aware of Brown’s civil suit against the lounge.
A small claims lawsuit would have had zero effect on his business, he testified.
