By Canadian Press

Alberta judge rejects trial delay argument in Calgary swarming death case

Dec 15, 2016 | 9:15 AM

CALGARY — An Alberta judge has upheld the murder and manslaughter convictions of three men who argued their case took too long to work its way through the court system on the basis of a landmark Supreme Court of Canada ruling earlier this year.

Lukas Strasser-Hird, 18, was beaten, kicked and stabbed by a group of individuals outside the Vinyl nightclub in Calgary on Nov. 23, 2013. 

This summer, a jury found Franz Emir Cabrera and Assmar Ryiad Shlah guilty of second-degree murder and Joch Pouk guilty of manslaughter.

The men had argued their convictions should be thrown out based on the Supreme Court’s Jordan ruling in July that outlines how much time should pass between when someone is charged and when their trial wraps up. Under that framework, the limit is 18 months in provincial court and 30 months in Superior Court.

The defence argued that 18 months should apply in this case because there was no preliminary hearing, but the judge ruled the 30-month ceiling was the one that mattered. 

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“Unfortunately, this case does not neatly fit into the two alternative ceilings,” Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Glen Poelman wrote in his verdict on Thursday.

The judge found that, while the case exceeded the 30-month ceiling by less than a month, the Crown had established its case for an exceptional circumstance.

Crown lawyer Ken McCaffrey said he was pleased by the decision.

“Now we can get on to the business of deciding the fate of these three men who committed this crime,” he said outside court.

“Finally, we can get down to the business of the victim impact statements. I’m talking about what actually happened that night rather than having the case bogged down in legal procedures.”

Balfour Der, the lawyer representing Shlah, said an appeal is in the works for his client’s conviction, and he’s planning to appeal Thursday’s decision, too.

“I’m disappointed because I thought this was a pretty sound legal argument to make about the delay,” he said. 

“I’m disappointed. My client’s disappointed. I know his family’s disappointed. Everybody gets their hopes up.”

Der said lengthy legal delays are bad for all involved — the accused waiting to learn their fates and victims of crime eager for closure.

“Many, many years ago, there was an expression coined by somebody — justice delayed is justice denied,” he said.

“Here we have rules and we have hard and fast rules that have to be complied with. If we don’t comply with these rules, then we have anarchy.”

Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. Previous versions referred to incorrect time frames under the Jordan decision.

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