Murder accused not entitled to speedy trial: judge

Former fugitive Nathan Gervais isn’t entitled to a speedy murder trial, a judge ruled Friday in setting a hearing for May 2019.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Earl Wilson said there was no need to give Gervais an earlier date to avoid a possible application for a stay of his charge based on unreasonable delay.

“Your guy is the one who failed to show up,” Wilson told defence counsel Alain Hepner, when the lawyer inquired about a possible earlier date.

Court was told an earlier date could be given if approved by the associate chief justice. But Wilson said that was inappropriate, since those dates should be reserved for cases where an issue of unreasonable delay might be raised.

“He disappears and he comes here clamouring, ‘I have a right, I have a right,’ ” Wilson said, pounding his hand on his desk.

“He’s not clamouring,” Hepner replied.

The judge said some trials can be double booked in order to avoid breaching Supreme Court-set deadlines for having the accused tried within a reasonable amount of time, but Gervais is no longer a “preferred customer” entitled to that.

Gervais, 23, was returned to Canada last month after he was found in Vietnam.

He’s accused of first-degree murder in the Nov. 23, 2013, death of Calgarian Lukas Strasser-Hird, who was fatally beaten and stabbed outside a Beltline nightclub.

Gervais failed to show up for his trial with four co-accused in May 2016.

In November 2014, he was released on $150,000 bail with strict court-imposed conditions, one of which included house arrest.

Gervais remains in custody.