Crown seeks stiffer sentence terms for two men convicted in gun-for-hire murders of family

The Crown is appealing the sentences of convicted killers Jason Klaus and Joshua Frank, who last month were ordered to serve the minimum 25 years — before being eligible for parole — on three counts of first-degree murder.

In its appeal filed Monday in the Court of Appeal of Alberta, the Crown said the sentence imposed “is demonstrably unfit.”

In sentencing submissions, the Crown sought the maximum parole ineligibility of 75 years for both men.

“The concurrent periods of parole ineligibility imposed are not proportionate to the gravity of the offence or the moral blameworthiness of the offender,” the appeal reads.

The appeal also argues that the sentencing judge failed to properly address the principles of deterrence and denunciation as sentencing factors, and to properly consider aggravating and mitigating factors.

Justice Eric Macklin ordered Klaus and Frank on Feb. 14 to serve life with no chance of parole for 25 years for the December 2013 gun-for-hire slayings of Klaus’s parents and adult sister in central Alberta.

Macklin could have made the periods of parole ineligibility consecutive, as Crown prosecutor Doug Taylor had sought, but agreed with defence lawyers Allan Fay and Tonii Roulston that was unnecessary.

“It is important to recognize that a sentence of life imprisonment necessarily involves control by the state for the rest of the offender’s life,” Macklin said at the time.

“When a court imposes consecutive periods of parole ineligibility for multiple murderers, it assumes the role which the parole board would have played many years into the future.

“As for general deterrence, I am skeptical as to whether increased parole ineligibility for multiple murderers has any useful deterrent effect.”