Triple-murderer Douglas Garland appealing 'excessive and harsh' sentence

Garland appeal being heard Convicted killer Douglas Garland is appealing his sentence to Alta.’s top court. He's convicted for the deaths of a Calgary couple.

Calgary — Alberta's top court is to hear arguments today in the sentencing appeal of a man who killed a Calgary couple and their five-year-old grandson six years ago.

Douglas Garland was sent to prison for life with no chance of parole for 75 years after a jury found him guilty in 2017 of the first-degree murders of Nathan O'Brien, 5, and Alvin and Kathy Liknes.

Garland would have to live to the age of 129 before being eligible to apply for parole.

At Garland's trial, the judge said the usual automatic life sentence with a minimum of 25 years before parole eligibility needed to be increased because of aggravating factors that included Nathan's young age and Garland not expressing remorse.

In a notice of appeal, Garland's lawyers argue his sentence of three consecutive parole ineligibilities is "excessive and harsh" and that victim impact statements "exceeded the scope" of what's allowed according to the Criminal Code.

The Alberta Court of Appeal rejected Garland's appeal of his conviction last year.

The couple and the boy vanished after an estate sale at the Liknes home in Calgary on June 29, 2014. Nathan was there for a sleepover.

Prosecutors believe the three family members were attacked at the home before being taken to the Garland farm, north of Calgary, where they were killed. Their bodies were never recovered, but bone fragments, burned flesh and teeth were found in ash from a burning barrel on the property.

The Crown had argued that Garland's anger over a dispute about a patent for an oilfield pump that he and Alvin Liknes had worked on together had built up to the point where he meticulously plotted the killings.

This report by the Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2020