Marcello Aravena

Marcello Aravena (born 11 April 1976) is a Canadian mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter, outlaw biker and gangster serving a life sentence in prison following his conviction on seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of manslaughter for his role in the Shedden massacre of 2006.

Aravena was born in Chile, but grew up in Winnipeg.

In the summer of 2005, Aravena's cousin, roommate and best friend was murdered in a bar fight, and afterwards, suffering from cocaine addiction, he moved in with his employer Mushey, paying $100 in rent in exchange for being allowed to live in his basement.

Aravena was a tae kwon do enthusiast who worked as a bouncer in strip club owned by Mushey, the secretary of the Winnipeg Bandidos chapter.

Despite not owning nor knowing to how to ride a motorcycle, Aravena was recruited into the Bandidos by Mushey.

Aravena was considered by those who knew him to be a follower, not a leader.

Aravena also worked as a boxer and a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter, usually losing his matches held across the Prairies, but was felt to be useful as "muscle" for the Winnipeg Bandido chapter.

A Chilean immigrant, Aravena billed himself in the ring as El Condor, but he was known on the MMA circuit on the Prairies as "The Great White Chilean Ape" and to his fellow Bandidos as "Beaker Two" as he was very loyal to the chapter president Michael "Taz" Sandham, aka "Little Beaker".

Sandham spoke with a high pitched voice and was called "Little Beaker" by his men after the Beaker character on The Muppet Show.

His IQ is extremely low as tests performed by police psychologists after his arrest in 2006 showed he had a vocabulary equivalent to that possessed by an eight year-old boy.

The journalist Anita Arvast called him a "bully by nature".

The most notable aspect of Aravena is his ape-like face, which frequently led him as a both a boy and as an adult to have nicknames such as "the Great White Chilean Ape" and the "Mountain Gorilla".

After dropping out of high school, Aravena made his living as professional MMA fighter; as a security guard at a Winnipeg restaurant, Phat Daddy's; and as a professional boxer.

Aravena usually lost his MMA and boxing matches.

The journalist Jerry Langton noted that he "had a rather disheartening 7-31-1 record as a pro".

Aravena said of his fighting career: "I put on a good show. That's why people liked me. I kept getting up and fighting".

After Phat Daddy's restaurant was shut down, Arvena started to work for Dwight "Big Dee" Mushey.

On 25 March 2006, at a meeting in Mushey's house, it was announced by Sandham that he and Mushey plus three other Bandidos would be going to Ontario.

The plan was to go to farmhouse of Wayne "Wiener" Kellestine at 32196 Aberdeen Line to "pull the patches" (i.e. take away their Bandido patches) of the "no-surrender crew" led by Giovanni "Boxer" Musedere.

Aravena had an MMA fight in Steinbach scheduled, so it was agreed that he would not go with Sandham to Kellestine's farm, but fly out alone after the fight.

After losing the fight in Steinbach, Aravena flew out to London, Ontario.

The security cameras at the London airport showed Sandham and Mushey picking up Aravena.

Kellestine treated the junior Bandidos like Aravena and Brett "Bull" Gardiner like slaves, expecting them to do all of his housework for them.

Sandham and the other Bandidos later described Kellestine as an odd and eccentric character who liked to eat animal excrement to prove how tough he was as an outlaw biker, and that he always laughed madly as the others looked on with disgust as he devoured whatever excrement he found lying on the ground.

Aravena recalled that Kellestine would smile and say "mm-mm good" before eating excrement, which led him to the conclusion that Kellestine was a "little bit of a weirdo".

At the beginning of April 2006, Kellestine accused one of the "no surrender crew", Jamie "Goldberg" Flanz, of being a police informer.

As Flanz was Jewish and the rabidly anti-Semitic Kellestine hated him for that, Muscedere did not take the allegation seriously, but to settle the matter, it was agreed that the "no surrender crew" would visit Kellestine's farm to discuss his claims.

Most of the "no surrender crew" lived in the Toronto area, but Kellestine insisted that the meeting be held at his farm, and Muscedere agreed.

On night of 7 April 2006, the "no-surrender crew" led by Muscedere arrived in Kellestine's barn.

Sandham killed Luis "Chopper" Raposo as he entering the barn.

After hearing the shots, Aravena rushed into the barn with his baseball bat.

Kellestine told Aravena to get him beer and water for the rest.

Kellestine also told Aravena to tell the men on the roof that everything was fine, which confused Aravena as there was no-one on the roof.

Aravena stood guard over the prisoners, threatening them with his baseball bat if any tried to escape.

Kellestine gave Aravena a handgun, but Sandham took it away from him, saying: "Give me that. You don't how to use it".

Kellestine, followed by Aravena, marched Muscedere out of the barn to execute him.

Aravena watched as Kellestine executed Muscedere.

Sandham told Aravena not to worry as he returned to the barn, saying Muscedere was the only one scheduled for execution and the rest of the "no surrender crew" were now going home, a lie that Aravean claimed at his trial to have believed in.

Kellestine produced weapons from his gun cache together with what he called his "wet work kit" for cleaning up after murders Araveana later testified at the trial in 2009 that Kellestine told Sandham that it might possible to "salvage Crash (George Kriarakis), Pony (George Jessome) and Big Paulie (Paul Sinopoli)", but the rest of the "no surrender crew" would have to be killed.

On the night of the massacre, Aravena was armed with a baseball bat as Sandham considered him too stupid to handle a gun.