'It's over': Family of man found dead 11 years ago relieved after jury finds killer guilty

The father of a man murdered over a decade ago uttered an audible sigh of relief outside a Calgary courtroom on Friday afterhearing his son's killer was found guilty.

"It's over," said Allan BerdahlSr. "We haven't been able to talk about this in 10 years."

In 2007, the body of AllanBerdahlJr. was found in a roadside ditch east of Carstairs. He had been shot five times in the head.

It took RCMPeight years to make an arrest in the case, but in 2015, the victim's friend Russell Tessierwas charged with the crime.

After a three-week trial, the jury found Tessier guilty of first-degree murder on Friday, which carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole fo 25 years.

During the trial, the jury heard how Tessier was the last person to see Berdahlalive and that the two had fought over a shared vehicle.

The Crown presented evidence that included video surveillance, phone records and a cigarette butt found near Berdahl's body that had Tessier's DNA on it.

Defence lawyer Rebecca Snukalhad questioned the DNA evidence from the cigarette butt in her closing arguments, saying it could have been transferred from another item and that it was found almost a kilometre away from the body.

She also said Berdahlhad a lot of enemies and owed a lot of money, suggesting there were a number of people who could be suspected in his death.

'Who is the con?'

In his victim impact statement,BerdahlSr., talked about how his son was characterized as a liar and a con man.

"I ask, who is the con and the liar?" he wrote.

BerdahlSr.broke down in court as the Crown read his victim impact statement, in which he spoke about the son they called Gerry, He said Gerry was excited about moving to Winnipeg to start over but Tessier robbed him of the chance to see his son turn his life around.

"I hope yourot in hell for what you have done," he wrote to his son's killer.

Jury took job seriously

Outside the courtroom, Crown prosecutor Jillian Pawlowsaid it was clear it was not an easy decision for the jury to make, but she believes they made the right one.

"I think the jury certainly took their time in looking over what was available to them," she said. "I think that's an indication that they took their job as a jury extremely seriously."

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