B.C. judge finds murderer in contempt over ‘inmate code’ refusal to answer questions

“Haevischer testified to his belief that violating the inmate code would place his life in immediate danger within jail,” the ruling says.

Haevischer refused to answer questions about the other people involved in the murders, including fellow members of the Red Scorpions gang, citing a “code” among inmates that prohibits co-operation with law enforcement under threat of “extreme violence.”

He told the court that “naming names or co-operating in any way” would make him a “rat” in the eyes of other inmates, knowing his refusal could jeopardize his credibility and possibly cost him his freedom.

“But if I did answer these questions and name names and talk about other people’s roles, it would put my life in danger,” he said. “It would cost me my life.”

Haevischer said it was common knowledge and part of prison culture that “ratting” on someone by giving evidence about their role in a crime is a violation of the “code.”

“You can’t do that,” he said.

The ruling says he then gave his account of the murders, and denied shooting the victims or being in the apartment when the murders occurred, an account “clearly inconsistent with the findings of guilt made against him.”

Justice Devlin says Haevischer also “conspicuously” omitted any mention of another perpetrator known as Person X, who pleaded guilty to three of the killings and the conspiracy to commit the murders.

He refused to answer the Crown’s questions that challenged his “narrative” about the murders, which spurred the citation for contempt, the ruling says.

Haevischer said he was refusing “regretfully” and without disrespect to the court, but was told by the judge that he was expected to answer questions and “your inmate code, as you’ve described it, isn’t a code that prevails in this courtroom.”

The ruling says Haevischer refused to answer the questions, and his claims of being under duress due to the possibility of being harmed or killed by fellow inmates lacked “an air of reality.”

Haevischer, the ruling says, claimed he was presented with an “impossible” choice to either answer questions and be labelled a “rat” or refuse to answer and be found in contempt.

The judge found his claims didn’t demonstrate an “express or implied threat” to support his claims of being under duress.

“He has only invoked the ‘inmate code’ in general terms and has relied on his understanding of the prison environment and the culture that pervades it,” the ruling says. “That is simply an insufficient evidentiary foundation, at law, to ground a defence of duress.”

“To protect the integrity of these proceedings and the justice system as a whole, I am satisfied that Mr. Haevischer’s contemptuous behaviour must be met with criminal sanction.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 4, 2025.

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

B.C. judge finds murderer in contempt over ‘inmate code’ refusal to answer questions

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