Brandon Teixeira, convicted last August of first-degree murder in the 2017 Surrey killing of Nicholas Khabra, asked B.C. Supreme Court on Jan. 5, 2026, to stay the case, arguing nearly eight years of delay violated his Charter right to a timely trial. The Crown blamed his flight to California.
A conviction eight years in the making
Teixeira was convicted by a jury last Aug. 25 of first-degree murder, attempted murder and discharging a firearm with intent to endanger life. The conviction came nearly eight years after the October 2017 shooting death of 28-year-old Nicholas Khabra in Surrey, B.C., a killing police have said was linked to organized crime.
The charges followed a probe by the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team and the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of B.C.
On Oct. 25, Teixeira filed an application for a judicial stay, arguing the delay breached his right to be tried within a reasonable time. The hearing before Justice Jennifer Duncan opened Monday, Jan. 5. If the application fails, a date for his sentencing hearing will be scheduled.
The Jordan question
The application turns on the Supreme Court of Canada’s 2016 ruling in R. v. Jordan, which set presumptive ceilings — 30 months for cases in superior court — after which delay is presumed unreasonable unless the Crown can point to defence delay or exceptional circumstances.
Defence lawyer Vicki Williams told the hearing that, apart from two periods of time including her client’s flight to the United States, no delays were attributable solely to the defence team.
Crown lawyer Dianne Wiedemann argued the opposite: that defence conduct constituting delay was “broad in scope,” and that the case was complex enough to merit an exception under Jordan.
“You’re not allowed to abscond, evade arrest, disappear, you know, in a foreign country, with a fake name, and then have that time period count toward delay,” Wiedemann told the hearing.
The escape the Crown put before the court
Much of Monday’s hearing revisited how Teixeira avoided arrest for so long. Wiedemann told the court that after he was initially charged in 2018, two Lower Mainland emergency response teams went to his home in marked police vehicles. Teixeira, standing on the front lawn with another man, ran inside as police shouted that he was under arrest.
He was shot in the leg with a less-lethal round, briefly came to the door to ask why he was being arrested, then got into a white Mercedes, drove it between a parked police vehicle and a retaining wall, and escaped despite a chase that included a helicopter, Wiedemann said.
Police offered a $55,000 reward for information through a partnership with Crime Stoppers and the Be On the Lookout program. A tip eventually led officers to a home in Oroville, Calif., where Teixeira was living under an assumed name. He was arrested on Dec. 1, 2019 — after stepping out, getting into his car and trying to flee again, before a police vehicle blocked his path and a police dog helped take him into custody — and was extradited to Canada in April 2020. He was charged by direct indictment on Dec. 20, 2019.
Teixeira appeared at the hearing by video conference from a correctional facility, wearing orange prison garb.
Decision reserved
Arguments in the application concluded on Friday, Jan. 9, and Justice Duncan reserved her decision, saying she needed more time to weigh the complex legal arguments. The ruling will decide whether one of B.C.’s longest-running murder prosecutions ends in a sentence — or in a stay that sets a convicted killer free because the process took too long.
