‘CHARACTER OF EVIL’
Triple murderer Douglas Garland sentenced to 75 years in prison
Remorseless to the end, triple murderer Douglas Garland was sentenced to life in prison Friday, with no chance for parole for 75 years.
If Garland lives long enough to apply for freedom, he’ll be 129 years old.
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice David Gates agreed with Crown prosecutor Shane Parker the convicted killer’s actions warranted consecutive periods of parole ineligibility.
“It is difficult to conceive a more cunning, cruel and horrific set of circumstances of assault, abduction, torture and murder,” Gates said, after asking Garland if he wished to speak and being told he did not.
“Mr. Garland, you have done a terrible thing, the horror and the terror that you visited upon these three innocent people extends almost beyond the boundaries of ordinary human comprehension.
“The circumstances defy description.”
Parker had a more succinct description of Garland’s crime. “It’s evil,” he said. “These acts, the Crown would submit, display a character of evil,” Parker said, in seeking the harshest sentence available for Garland under Canadian law.
Garland was 54 years old when on June 30, 2014, he violently kidnapped Alvin and Kathy Liknes and their five-year-old grandson, Nathan O’Brien, from the couple’s Calgary home and murdered them at his Airdrie farm.
Parker told Gates each murder had a different element, warranting consecutive terms of parole ineligibility.
Alvin, 66, was killed out of revenge over a years long grudge Garland held against him for an apparent slight in leaving the killer’s name off a patent application for an oilfield pump which never made any money.
Kathy, 53, was added to Garland’s murderous plan at a later date when the killer became fixated on her and her death had a “sexual element,” Parker said.
Among the bizarre materials found on a hard drive hidden in the farmhouse Garland shared with his elderly parents were images of women, some bound, wearing adult diapers.
A July 1, 2014, aerial photograph captured the victim’s corpses lying on the ground on Garland’s property, face down in the grass, wearing nothing but adult diapers.
Nathan, Parker said, was killed after Garland made a conscious choice to add the little boy to his deadly plot when he was discovered at the home while having a sleepover with his grandparents.
“Each victim was apparently murdered for a slightly different purpose,” the prosecutor said.
“This was ... a brutal crime of stark horror,” he said.
“You not only have death, you have torture, inhuman behaviour.”
But defence lawyer Kim Ross argued since all the killings occurred during a single criminal act, consecutive terms of parole ineligibility weren’t warranted.
Ross suggested Garland’s sentence should be life in prison without parole for a minimum 25 years.
He said that term would give parole officials discretion to release Garland if he became infirm as he reached old age.
Ross added Garland was a loner with no one to support him.
“There are really no friends, or family, Mr. Garland is essentially on his own now.”
Meanwhile, Gates also heard victim impact statements from five relatives of the deceased, including Nathan’s parents, Rod and Jennifer O’Brien.
Rod said no matter what Gates decided, Garland would have to answer to a higher court.
“A life sentence on earth is nothing compared to what waits for you,” he told the killer.
Before the victim impact statements were read in, co-defence counsel Alias Sanders said some editing was necessary to comply with provisions of the Criminal Code.
Gates agreed, although he dismissed suggestions Rod’s comments about Garland’s fate after death amounted to expressing an opinion on punishment.
Garland’s ultimate punishment is “beyond the reach of this court,” the judge said.