Canada spent $550K to track down Calgary murder suspect who fled to Vietnam

A Calgary man charged with first-degree murder was sentenced to 15 months in jail, less time served, forbreaching his bail, after he fled to Vietnamless than two weeks before he was to go on trial.

Nathan Paul Gervaisfled Calgary in April 2016 in advance of his trial inthe death of18-year-old LukasStrasser-Hird, who wasswarmed and fatally stabbed in a downtown alleyin 2013.

Gervais was arrested by Vietnamese police and flown back to Canada in February.

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Gervais pleaded guilty to the breach of bail.

"Neither his lawyer nor the Crown could find any cases that were similar to this, so it's fair to say we were in some uncharted waters with this," Crown prosecutor Steven Johnston said.

Johnston said about $550,000 of Canadian resources were spent tracking down Gervais and returning him to face trial, with $85,000 of that going to overtime for police and $20,000 to fly him home.

"In my view, the accomplishment the police did, to get him back to Canada from a country that doesn't have extradition with Canada, is really the story here," he said.

Johnston praised the work of the Calgary Police Service.

"That they could apprehend a person who has fled Canada with every intention of never coming back and they were able to get him and capture him and bring him back, is to me at least a very big accomplishment here."

The original trial went ahead for four others accused in the killing. Franz Cabrera and Assmar Shlah were found guilty of second-degree murder, while Joch Pouk was found guilty of manslaughter.

A fourth man, JordanLiao,was acquitted.

Gervais' trial is booked for two weeks in January 2019.

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