Sensational murder trial of Douglas Garland will dominate Calgary court cases in 2017

The triple-murder trial of Douglas Garland will highlight a busy 2017 in Calgary courtrooms. It will likely make all other court cases pale in comparison. But while other cases will capture headlines throughout the year, the Garland trial is expected to keep everyone watching riveted to their seats.

Garland is charged with first-degree murder in the June 30, 2014 deaths of little Nathan O’Brien, 5, and the boy’s grandparents, Alvin and Kathy Liknes.

The trio disappeared from their Parkhill-area home that day and their bodies have never been found.

Garland was arrested days after their disappearance after police scoured his parents’ acreage northeast of Calgary.

His trial, beginning Jan. 16, is set to last five weeks, with veteran defence lawyers Kim Ross and Jim Lutz acting for him.

When it was scheduled in July, 2015, lead Crown prosecutor Shane Parker said the long wait time would be hard on those close to the case.

“It’s extraordinarily hard on the families and of course we have witnesses getting up there in age as well, so it is a concern that we’re looking at 2017,” he said.

“From the family standpoint, I can only imagine how hard this is going to be.”

They won’t have much longer to wait now.

Another case sure to grab headlines will be that of purported gang leader Nick Chan, who will face his second trial for murder in less than two years.

Chan was acquitted last March of first-degree murder for his alleged role in the Bolsa restaurant slayings, when a jury rejected the evidence of the Crown’s star witness that he was a gang leader and had ordered a hit on rival gangster Sanjeev Mann.

Mann, associate Aaron Bendle and innocent bystander Keni Su’a were gunned down when two masked men stormed the restaurant on Jan. 1, 2009.

Chan will face a six-week jury trial beginning Oct. 2 for his alleged role in the Aug. 9, 2008 shooting death of Kevin Anaya on a northeast Calgary street.

Chan is also charged with conspiracy to murder rival gang member Kevin Bontagon in the plot that ended in the shooting of Anaya, who was not a gang member.

The death of Nathan O’Brien won’t be the only child’s death which will be the focus of criminal proceedings in 2017.

Four other high-profile cases will be heard in Calgary courtrooms, two involving allegations parents didn’t get their child adequate medical care leading to their deaths.

Tamara Lovett will learn Jan. 23 whether she will face any criminal sanctions in the death of her seven-year-old son Ryan.

Lovett faces charges of criminal negligence causing death and failing to provide the necessaries of life in connection with the child’s March, 2013 death from “overwhelming sepsis” from infections in all his organs.

Lovett had been treating the boy with home remedies such as dandelion tea and oil of oregano.

Parents Jeromie and Jennifer Clark will face the same charges Lovett faces when they stand trial June 5 for the death of their 14-month-old son John, who died Nov. 29, 2013 from an untreatable staph infection complicated by malnutrition.

And mothers Livia Starlight and Laura Lee Coward are scheduled to stand trial in 2017 for murder in the deaths of their children.

Starlight is charged with second-degree murder in the Sept. 25, 2014 death of her two-year-old son Traezlin Denzel Starlight, while Coward is accused of first-degree murder in the Sept. 2, 2014 death of her nine-year-old daughter, Amber Lucius, who was found dead in a vehicle on a rural road near Sundre.

By: Kevin Martin

Calgary Sun