BURSTOne of the men convicted in the 2007 Surrey Six slayings has been sentenced to two years in jail for contempt of court, which will be served concurrently with his life sentences.
On Aug. 27 in Vancouver, Justice Martha Devlin delivered her reasons for judgment against Cody Rae Haevischer.
Six people were shot dead in Suite 1505 of the Balmoral Tower in Whalley on Oct. 19, 2007. The Crown’s theory was that the killings were payback for an unpaid debt between rival gangs. Christopher Mohan and Abbotsford gasfitter Ed Shellenberg, 55, were innocent victims who accidentally stumbled upon a drug hit in progress. Edward Sousakhone Narong, 22, Ryan Bartolomeo, 19, and brothers Michael Justin Lal, 26, and Corey Jason Michael Lal, 21, were also slain.
Devlin found him guilty of contempt of court on Dec. 3, 2025, in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster.
Earlier in the day, Devlin dismissed Haevischer’s application for the judge to declare a judicial stay of proceedings on the grounds of abuse of process. She found his allegations had no “merit” and affirmed the six concurrent life sentences with no eligibility for parole for 25 years that Haevischer received on Dec. 12, 2014.
Eight times during the evidentiary hearing, which started on Nov. 4, 2025, when Haevischer was on the stand, he refused to answer questions from the Crown, even when he was told to do so.
“Mr. Haevischer justified his refusal to follow my directions on the basis that he feared answering certain questions would contravene the ‘inmate code,’ as he understood it, and would make him the target of violence in the inmate population,” Devlin said.
The court gave him the opportunity to explain why he should not be found guilty of contempt of court. His lawyer showed that his safety would be in danger if he violated the “inmate code,” but ultimately Devlin was found guilty.
The Crown sought a sentence of three years, while defence counsel wanted one.
Haevischer agreed that “his conduct was serious” and must be met with a proper sentence, but that it should be viewed within “the context of the proceedings as a whole.”
“Mr. Haevischer notes that he testified for 19 days and was asked approximately 8,000 questions over that period. He says that he answered virtually all of the questions posed to him. He emphasizes that his citation for contempt formally encompasses only eight specific incidents in which he refused my directions, and that in doing so he remained polite and respectful,” reads the reasons for judgment. “Mr. Haevischer says that his refusal to answer certain questions while in cross-examination did not have the effect of depriving the Court and the community of evidence about the commission of very serious offences, but instead simply related to certain aspects of his application for a stay of proceedings.”
Devlin found that Haevischer was “intentional, deliberate and informed” in not answering the Crown’s questions eight times.
“Mr. Haevischer was given ample opportunity to obtain independent legal advice prior to the citation for contempt and had multiple opportunities throughout the balance of his cross-examination to re-consider his conduct. He nonetheless persisted in his contemptuous behaviour, and did so in a deliberate manner, including in the sense that he carefully chose which types of questions he would answer and which he would not,” Devlin said.
She also noted that there were several other times that Haevischer did not answer the Crown’s questions when he was not directed to do so.
Devlin stated that the sentence will be served at the same time as the life sentences.
“In the ordinary course, the lack of a connection between Mr. Haevischer’s contempt offence and his prior offending may have called for consecutive sentences to be imposed. … However, in the circumstances of an offender who is already serving a sentence of life imprisonment, the imposition of a sentence consecutive to the life sentence is wrong at law and a logical impossibility,” she said.
Haevischer was not given any credit for his time in pre-trial custody, which is something defence counsel asked for.
READ MORE: Murder conviction, sentencing stands in Surrey 6 slayings
-With files from Tom Zytaruk