On 21 October 2009, Mushey and Gardiner fired their lawyers and stated to Justice Thomas Heeny they were content not to have legal counsel for the rest of the trial. Under the outlaw biker code, bikers never "rat" on their colleagues with for example both Frank Lenti and Mario Parente both serving long prison sentences rather than accept offers of immunity from the Crown in exchange for testifying against other outlaw bikers. Both Hicks and Moon had blamed the murders on Kellestine and Sandham, which was viewed as "ratting" in the outlaw biking world, and Mushey and Gardiner seemed to have been trying to avoid that impression. Bryant read out a touching letter full of pathos entitled "Dear Dad" and said to have been written by Aravena to the jury in his final address, portraying him as a sad lost soul caught up in events beyond his control. Powell demanded a mistrial under the grounds that the virtually illiterate Aravena could not have written the "Dear Dad" letter, but Justice Heeney ruled that through it was highly unlikely that Aravena had written the letter, this was not grounds for a mistrial. In his final address to the jury, Gowdey admitted that M.H was far from being a model citizen, but that the forensic evidence supported his testimony. Gowdey argued though Mather, Aravena, and Gardiner had not killed anyone, they were still guilty of first degree murder as there had been a plan to murder the "no surrender crew", which they were a part of, and that by guarding the prisoners, Mather, Aravena and Gardiner had facilitated the killings, making them just as guilty as Kellestine, Sandham and Mushey. Gowdey stated: "People who intentionally help or encourage others to kill are as guilty as those who pull the trigger". Gowdey argued that a first degree murder conviction was warranted as there was premeditation to the killings, noting the killers had armed themselves beforehand, were wearing rubber gloves and in the case of Sandham was wearing his "ratty" bullet proof vest, saying: "It this wasn't a plan, this is amazing luck...It has plan and ambush written all over it".