Taiwanese-Canadian Wu Hsuan (吳宣), an alleged accomplice in the murder of a Canadian man in New Taipei City, said that Israeli-American Oren Shlomo Mayer had masterminded the killing, instructing others to buy weapons and tools, and also headed up an illegal drug ring, with other suspects working under him.
During the trial at the New Taipei City District Court on Wednesday, judges called on two of the defendants, Wu, 21, and Mayer, 37, for cross-examination.
According to the court transcript, Wu said that Mayer had planned the killing of Sanjay Ryan Ramgahan.
Photo: Wang Ting-chuan, Taipei Times
Prior to the killing on Aug. 22 last year, Mayer instructed him to go to a shop and showed him photographs of what to buy, including machetes, a rope saw, a grindstone, leather gloves as used by martial arts fighters and a truncheon, he said.
“Mayer said he was worried about personal safety after having a dispute with someone, so I was asked to help and buy these items for Mayer to protect himself,” Wu said, adding that he did not know Mayer was planning to kill Ramgahan.
He had only met Ramgahan once and had no idea what Mayer’s relationship with him was, he said.
Wu said that he had worked with Mayer, delivering and selling cannabis.
Mayer and American Ewart Odane Bent, 30, were last year charged with murder, as well as the abandonment and destruction of a corpse.
The other two defendants, Wu and American Jason Eugene Hobbie, 46, were charged with aiding and abetting in a homicide.
Prosecutors alleged that Ramgahan had operated his own cannabis business and that Mayer decided to sell the drug, after seeing that Ramagahan was making a good profit.
Mayer recruited his friends, among them the three defendants, to sell the cannabis, prosecutors said.
In his testimony on Wednesday, Wu showed judges the tattoos on his left arm, which he said were done by Mayer, who had worked as a tattoo artist with the moniker “Oz Diamond” near Taipei Railway Station.
Wu pointed to the tattoos, saying that the handgun represented a soldier, the paper airplane represented traveling to other countries and the dollar sign represented making money, the court transcript showed.
“These tattoos were done on me and Bent, as Mayer said we must have these markings if were were to work selling cannabis. Having these tattoos meant that we are all in it together,” Wu told the court.
Wu said that Mayer had told him and others that Ramgahan was a police informer, so something needed to be done.
However, Mayer on Aug. 22 last year only instructed him to go to a riverside park by Sindian River (新店溪) in Yonghe District (永和) to smoke cannabis and to help check if any police were coming, he said.
“At that time I did not know what Mayer was doing. I only found out that Ramgahan was killed when I saw the news the next day,” Wu said.
Using a translator, Mayer said that there were many errors and inconsistencies in Wu’s testimony, but did not answer the questions directed at him, saying that he would provide his reply to the judges in writing.
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