The man accused of fatally shooting 28-year-old Nicholas Khabra in South Surrey nearly eight years ago has been found guilty of murder and attempted murder.
B.C. Prosecution Service officials confirm the jury rendered the verdict against Brandon Nathan Teixeira on Monday (Aug. 25), following a trial in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster that got underway in February.
Initially, 160 days had been set aside for the proceeding. Monday marked the trial's 104th day.
The jury also found Teixeira guilty of discharge a firearm with intent.
Teixeira was arrested in Oroville, Calif. in December 2019 in connection with the Oct. 23, 2017 killing.
Khabra was found suffering from fatal gunshot wounds when police responded to a residence in the 14300-block of Crescent Road following an early morning report of shots fired.
Teixeira was announced nearly a year later as a key suspect, and ultimately charged with first-degree murder. He was additionally charged with attempted murder and discharging a firearm with intent to wound or disfigure, in connection with gunshot wounds suffered on the same morning by a young woman who reportedly drove herself a short distance away from the scene and called 911. Police said at the time that they believed the woman, 24, was with Khabra when the shooting occurred.
Following a series of public appeals, warnings and manhunts 鈥� including one in South Surrey's Country Woods neighbourhood in September 2018 鈥� an anonymous tip pointed U.S. authorities to a residence in Oroville, a small city located approximately 100 kilometres north of Sacramento.
Reports at the time of his arrest described Teixeira as using violent attempts to elude capture. He was extradited to Canada in late April 2020.
In court, Crown counsel said Teixeira and Person X 鈥� who testified as a paid informant 鈥� were paid $160,000 to kill Khabra, due to the belief that Khabra had set Teixeira up days earlier in a drive-by shooting.
Other witnesses who testified included a woman who was with Khabra on the day he was killed. She told the court he had his hand on the handle of the passenger door of the vehicle she was in when the shooting started; that she heard multiple gunshots; that she felt a burning sensation in her legs; and, that she "."
Teixeira's next court appearance is set for 2 p.m. Sept. 18, to fix a date for sentencing.
