Court grants new trials for men convicted in triple murder

The Alberta Court of Appeal announced Wednesday that two men convicted in a triple shooting at a restaurantin southeast Calgary on New Year's Day in 2009 will get new trials.

Michael Roberto and Nathan Zuccheratowere both convicted in 2011on three counts of first-degree murder for their roles in the shooting deathsof Sanjeev Mann, Aaron Bendle and Keni Su'a.

They were both serving life sentences for the murders.

But the Crown agreedin April that the convictions against Roberto and Zuccherato could not stand in light of new evidence linking another man to the murders.

TheCrown's starwitness, a police informant known only as M.M., told Saskatchewan RCMP in 2011 that he had shot all three victims himself as he was being arrested for drunk driving.

The evidence was only disclosed to the Crown last year after the pair was found guilty.

The triple shooting was part of an escalating, violent feud between two rival gangs Fresh Off the Boat and FOB Killers.

Mann and Bendle had gang ties, but Suaa 43-year-old construction workerwas eating in the restaurant. He tried to escape before he was beaten and shot to death in the parking lot.

Real Honorio, 29, was also sent to prisonfor the shootings after being found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in October 2012.

Afourth man,Nicholas Hovanesian, was sentenced to 14 yearsfor his role in the killings in March.