Police officers conduct a sweep of the area near where eight bodies were found near Shedden, Ont., on April 8, 2006. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

A key witness in the trial of six men charged with murdering members of the Bandidos biker gang in southwestern Ontario testified Wednesday that the head of the gang's Winnipeg chapter said it was time to "screw Toronto" and work with Bandidos in Washington state instead.

The witness is a former Bandido from the Winnipeg chapter turned police informant who can only be identified as M.H. because he is now in a witness protection program.

He was testifying for the second day in a London, Ont., courtroom in the trial relating to the shooting deaths of eight Bandidos members and associates from the Toronto area. The bodies of the men were found on April 8, 2006, stuffed in several cars that had been abandoned not far from the community of Shedden.

During his testimony, M.H said Bandidos in Winnipeg were upset with gang members in Toronto who were holding the Winnipeg chapter back from full gang membership.

He said one of the accused, Michael Sandham, met with gang officials from the U.S. outside of Vancouver in early 2006 and returned home with the news that the Toronto chapter would "be no more."

Later that year, M.H. said, the Winnipeg members were told to travel to southwestern Ontario with their chapter boss to meet with Bandido Wayne Kellestine, a sympathizer who opposed the Toronto chapter despite being one of its members. Kellestine is one of the six defendants accused of first-degree murder.

The witness described how Kellestine felt slighted by the Toronto chapter, saying he was often informed of club meetings with little time to travel to Toronto from his farm near Shedden.

Under the agreement with the U.S. Bandidos made at the Vancouver meeting, Kellestine would become national president, Sandham would become secretary treasurer and Kellestine would also set up a chapter in London, M.H. testified.

It was to be Kellestine's responsibility to strip the Toronto members of their club patches, he said.

"The States wanted to know what was taking so long," M.H. said.

'Be prepared for the worst'

M.H. told the court that upon arriving at Kellestine's farm without advance notice, Kellestine told the Winnipegers that two Toronto Bandidos had just been sent to Winnipeg to kill the chapter's boss, not knowing that he and other members of the Winnipeg chapter were travelling east just as they were heading west.

The two groups had just missed each other, M.H. said.

On April 6 and 7, the men at Kellestine's house discussed what to do about the Toronto chapter, and it was decided that Kellestine would tell his fellow Toronto members he was holding a "church" — what they called club meetings — at his place, M.H. said.

Kellestine had mentioned he had a cache of weapons hidden under the shingles of his porch roof, and when he spoke of the need to replace the shingles after they were ripped up to get at the weapons, M.H. said, Kellestine was asked why.

"He said, 'Just in case. Be prepared for the worst'," M.H. testified.

Hours before the men were to arrive for the meeting, Kellestine began rounding up weapons — such as shotguns and rifles — that he had stored all over his house, M.H. said, and then the men went about putting them together, cleaning them and loading them.

The Crown alleges the eight men, who had all been shot in the head execution-style, were killed as part of an internal cleansing of the club.

M.H. is expected to give more testimony on Thursday about what occurred during the massacre itself.

The four other men charged are:

• Dwight Mushey, 41
• Frank Mather, 35
• Brett Gardiner, 25
• Marcelo Aravena, 32

All six accused have pleaded not guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder.

The shooting victims were:

• George Jessome, 52
• George Kriarakis, 28
• John Muscedere, 48
• Luis Raposo, 41
• Frank Salerno, 43
• Paul Sinopoli, 30
• Jamie Flanz, 37
• Michael Trotta, 31

With files from The Canadian Press