Charges have been laid against two Vancouver-area gangsters for killing Naramata resident Kathy Richardson, who was found dead inside her home nearly two years ago.
According to BC's online court services database, charges were laid on Friday against 23-year-old Ekene Dillichuwu Anigbo and 22-year-old Jalen Falk for the June 9, 2021 murder in Naramata.
RCMP said at the time they believed the death was connected to the double homicide of two Kamloops men in the Naramata area in May.
Richardson, 57, was the mother of Wade Cudmore, one of two men charged with the homicide of Kamloops brothers Carlos and Erick Fryer, whose bodies were found in a remote area near Naramata in May 2021.
Cudmore is in custody awaiting trial, which has now been set for June 3, 2024. He was in Kelowna court by way of video Friday seeking release on bail, but the judge reserved his decision to early May. Cudmore's co-accused, 35-year-old Anthony Graham of Penticton, remains at large.
Anigbo and Falk remain in custody at this time. Anigbo is scheduled for a bail hearing in Kelowna court on Tuesday.
The two young men are no strangers to the criminal justice system. Anigbo was named by the Vancouver Police Department in May 2021 as one of its top six most-dangerous Lower Mainland gang members. The VPD said Anigbo, also known as rapper Lolo Lanski, was a Kang/Red Scorpion gang member.
Anigbo is already in custody on separate convictions. He was arrested in Richmond in October 2021, four months after Richardson's murder, carrying two semi-automatic firearms in a hotel lobby. He was on probation for a prior conviction at the time.
He pleaded guilty last September and was handed a four-year jail sentence.
“At the time of his arrest, Anigbo had a rifle, a handgun, and ammunition in his possession,” Vancouver Police Department (VPD) spokesperson Const. Tania Visintin said at the time.
During sentencing, Judge Reginald Harris said: “His conduct is dangerous to the community at a time when gun violence appears to be rampant."
Falk, meanwhile, is currently facing a slew of drug trafficking and weapons charges in connection to a July 2022 incident, where he and Vancouver resident Shahram Tokhy allegedly flew a drone carrying drugs into a Manitoba prison in the middle of the night. Police later found drugs and guns at an Airbnb rented by the two men.
The men were charged with drugs and firearms charges, and the case is believed to still be ongoing.
According to reporting by the Vancouver Sun's Kim Bolan, Tokhy has also recently been charged with conspiracy to commit murder in Coquitlam, Agassiz, Kelowna and Prince George in May 2021. He's scheduled to appear in court in Williams Lake for a bail hearing next Tuesday.
Castanet has reached out to the RCMP for comment on the investigation.
