Duo who killed family gets life in prison

Consecutive periods of parole ineligibility for multiple murderers eliminates the motive for rehabilitation and has little deterrent effect on others, a judge said Wednesday in handing two triple-killers the minimum punishment.

Justice Eric Macklin ordered Jason Klaus and Joshua Frank to serve three concurrent life sentences without parole for 25 years for the slayings of Klaus’s parents and adult sister.

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, in refusing to take away any real possibility of future freedom from either killer.

“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,” the judge said.

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

“It seems far-fetched to opine that a person, having formed the intention to murder more than one individual, would weigh in the balance the … possible variations in parole ineligibility.”

Taylor said despite Macklin rejecting his submissions, the ruling was a sound one.

“I thought the judge gave a very well-reasoned, extensive decision and I certainly accept his decision,” he said on the steps of the Red Deer courthouse.

In convicting them in January, Macklin rejected testimony from both accused denying confessions they made to undercover RCMP officers posing as members of a criminal organization, and trying to pin the murders on each other.

The Court of Queen’s Bench judge ruled they conspired together to kill Klaus’s family members.

He said Klaus believed he would either receive a large insurance payment for the deaths, or get cash for the sale of the family’s farm.

“Mr. Klaus anticipated being in receipt of funds, either insurance money or money from either the operation or sale of the farm, and agreed to pay Mr. Frank some cash and also give him a truck,” Macklin said.

After shooting the Klaus family, Frank set fire to the house.

He said Klaus believed he and Frank had agreed to a payment between $10,000 and $20,000 for Frank to kill his family members, while the gunman thought he would get as much as $50,000.

The judge said the one major mistake made in the plan was Frank killing the family dog outside the home and leaving the carcass on the driveway.

“But for the shooting of the family dog, Keela, the deaths of Gordon, Sandra and Monica Klaus may never have been investigated as a homicide,” he said.

The victims were shot in their Castor farmhouse by Frank, after he was dropped at the scene by Klaus.

After shooting the victims, Frank shot all three a second time to make sure they were dead, before spreading accelerant throughout the house and setting it on fire.

The blaze was so intense, no remains of Sandra Klaus could be identified.

Outside court, Marilyn Thomson, who lost a brother, sisterin-law and niece in the killings, thanked those who worked tirelessly to convict the pair, both from the Crown’s office and the RCMP.

She also thanked Macklin “for his much appreciated expertise and wisdom.”

Thomson declined to comment on Macklin’s sentencing decision.