Alleged bomber asked friend to buy gunpowder after being charged with murder

Brian Malley (screenshot from cbc.ca footage)

RED DEER, Alberta — An Alberta financial adviser charged with killing one of his clients with a bomb disguised as a Christmas present asked his business partner to buy gunpowder.

Bob Yanew testified Tuesday at the trial of 57-year-old Brian Malley.

Malley is accused of first-degree murder in the death of 23-year-old Victoria Shachtay in November 2011.

Yanew said he and Malley were co-owners of Kodiak Homes, as well as hunting buddies.

Yanew said Malley asked him to buy a specific brand of gunpowder when he visited him at the Red Deer Remand Centre shortly after his arrest in May 2012.

Malley later left a message on Yanew’s phone saying not to worry about the conversation and he had arranged for someone else to get what he had asked about.

“I was pretty much in shock,” said Yanew, adding he did not act on the request.

“Him asking me to do this was even more of a shock. He was a brother to me and I couldn’t understand why he wanted to get me involved and incriminate myself.”

Yanew said Malley mouthed that he was being set up by the RCMP and that they were going to lose one of the containers of gunpowder.

During the police search of Malley’s residence on May 25, 2012, they found one container of gunpowder.

It is alleged that Malley built a bomb, then disguised it in a Christmas bag and put on Shachtay’s doorstep.

Shachtay was killed when the bomb detonated when she opened the gift.

Shachtay invested more than $750,000 with Malley, $575,000 of which came from a 2007 settlement for a car crash in which she lost the use of her legs.

By 2011, the money was gone from her investment.