Judge refuses to toss murder convictions for Lukas Strasser-Hird's killers
Trio who killed 18-year-old Calgary man will be sentenced early next year
The three men who killed Lukas Strasser-Hird will not have their convictions overturned despite arguing their constitutional rights were violated by unreasonable court delays, a Calgary judge has ruled.
Strasser-Hird diedafter being attackedin an alley at Second Street and 10th Avenue S.W. in November 2013.
FranzCabrera andAssmar Shlah were found guilty by a juryofsecond-degree murderconvictions that come withan automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 to 25 years whileJochPouk was found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
A fourth man, JordanLiao,was found not guilty of second-degree murder.
A fifth man, NathanGervais, wascharged with first-degree murder, but disappeared weeks before the trial began while on bail. He remains at large.
R. vs. Jordan
A 2016 Supreme Court decision, R. vs. Jordan, puts hard timelines on what is considered an unreasonable delay for matters to get to trial 18 months for provincial court matters and 30 months for Superior Court cases to make it to trial.
In this case, the trial only exceeded the 30-month mark by a few weeks and Court of Queen's Bench Justice Glen Poelmanfound the "Crown established a transitional exceptional circumstance."
A sentencing hearing will take place in January.
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