A B.C. Supreme Court judge got a schooling on the finer points of jailhouse slang during a voir dire hearing leading up to a Surrey murder trial.

A voir dire is essentially a mini trial within a trial where the Crown and defence make arguments over what evidence a judge should allow into the trial proper, be it before a judge and jury or considered only by the judge, himself or herself.

Justice Frits Verhoeven during such a hearing heard an application from the Crown seeking to include in the trial expert opinion evidence concerning coded, slang and covert language "with respect to illegal activities."

Verhoeven presided over the first-degree murder trial of Carlos Nathaniel Monteith in New Westminster, after which a jon March 14. A fix-date hearing is set for March 27 to determine when Monteith will be sentenced.

Kristijan Coric, 29, of Surrey was murdered on Sept. 28, 2019 during a shooting at the Mobil Gas Station at 18699 Fraser Highway. The trial with judge and jury began on Feb. 3 and evidence related to the Crown's application was heard on Jan. 24.

The Crown relied on the contents of phone calls Monteith made while in custody at North Fraser Pretrial Centre, after November 25, 2019, that were related to another matter and included some rap song lyrics.

The Crown contented the jail calls included "a number of admissions, and also that the jail calls support other aspects of the Crown鈥檚 case," Verhoeven noted in his

"During these calls, the accused referred to shooting people in the head, killing someone, and that he had a body," the judge stated in his reasons. "He also said that he has done things for money, and he could get 25 to life. He used slang terms for violence such as having a body, wiping a nose, spanking a man on camera, and having a hammer (firearm). The accused also rapped about being an assassin, killing someone, with hollow points, head shots, and having a black mask."

The defence opposed admission of the jail calls into the trial, arguing they are "difficult to decipher, or indecipherable, contain significant amounts of slang, and in general, are very difficult to understand."

Monteith is from Toronto. The court heard from a detective constable from the Toronto police service whom the judge was satisfied is an expert in "coded, slang and covert language in the context of illegal activities."

During the voir dire 15 jail calls were considered, with five of them containing rap lyrics, with the detective tasked with interpreting them. 

Verhoeven heard that a 鈥渉ammer" refers to a firearm; 鈥渂ands" refers to money or thousand-dollar increments of money ( 鈥淩acks" or 鈥渂and" both refer to $1,000 increments of money), a 鈥減lug" is a supplier or person who has access to something; 鈥渟nake" means untrustworthy; 鈥減aper" refers to money; 鈥渃atch a body" refers to someone being killed;  鈥渨ipe a nose鈥� refers to an act of violence, like a shooting, robbery, or a homicide; 鈥渂ag" refers to money; 鈥渉ollow shells鈥� and 鈥渘ine" refer to ammo and guns.

Also, the judge heard, 鈥渘ine bitch" can refer to a firearm; 鈥淚 have a body" refers to having killed someone; 鈥渢ouch roads" refers to being released from jail; 鈥渂ird" refers to drugs; 鈥淐asper" refers to ghost; 鈥渟pank" or 鈥渟panking" refers to shooting someone or something; 鈥渉emmed up" refers to being arrested; 鈥渉itter" refers to a shooter, or as a variation of the term 鈥渉it man"; and 鈥渟tick" refers to a firearm.

Verhoeven noted in his reasons "It will be the task of the jury to decide what is said in the jail calls, what the meaning of the words was, and, of course, any significance of the contents of the calls.

"I previously commented that interpretation of the slang is necessary, and that the language in the jail calls is 'cryptic, coded, guarded,' and 'apparently deliberately vague,'" the judge added. He decided "the proposed evidence is logically relevant."

The words and phrases, Verhoeven said, "comprise specialized language of a nature largely peculiar to the Toronto criminal street and drug crime scenes.  This evidence is very likely to be outside of the understanding and knowledge of most and probably all members of the jury, hearing this case in New Westminster, British Columbia."