Jury deliberations begin Wednesday in Garland triple-murder trial
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT The fate of triple-murder suspect Douglas Garland will be placed in the hands of a 12-member Calgary jury Wednesday.
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice David Gates will give final legal instructions to the 13 remaining jury members (the case started a month ago with 14) before one juror’s number will be drawn and that individual will be dismissed.
There are currently three women and 10 men hearing the case.
Under recent amendments to the Criminal Code, trials can start with up to 14 jurors, but only a maximum of 12 — and as few as 10 — can decide an accused’s guilt, or innocence.
The change to the legislation was made to ensure longer trials didn’t end in mistrials if the jury size shrunk to nine.
In the Garland trial, one juror was dismissed as a result of a death in his family.
During the case, jurors have heard sometimes disturbing evidence of what investigators found on the Airdrie farm north of Calgary that Garland shared with elderly parents. Along with a meat saw and spare blades, meat hooks, multiple knives, handcuffs and other restraints, jurors were told about the contents of a hard drive found hidden in the basement rafters of the Garland home.
In his closing arguments, Crown prosecutor Shane Parker said the contents of the hard drive show the murderous intent of its user, whom he argues was Garland.
Jurors were shown graphic images of women in adult diapers, some bound as well.
They also viewed photographs of dead and dismembered bodies pulled from the data storage device.
As well, jurors heard evidence of numerous Internet searches conducted on two of Garland’s alleged victims, Kathy and Alvin Liknes.
Garland, 57, is charged with first-degree murder in the disappearance and deaths of the couple, along with their five-year-old grandson, Nathan O’Brien.
Kathy, 53, Alvin, 66, and little Nathan went missing on June 30, 2014, after the boy had been left at his grandparents’ Parkhill home in southwest Calgary for a sleepover by his mom, Jennifer.
When the mother showed up to pick up her son that morning she found a bloody scene in the home and no sign of her son, or parents.
Parker told jurors that while the prosecution’s case is circumstantial, there is ample evidence for them to convict Garland as charged.
Particularly compelling, he argued, are aerial photographs taken of the Garland farm the day after the trio went missing, which the Crown says shows the victims’ bodies on the ground.
The images, which shows what looks like two adults face down wearing nothing but what the prosecution contends are adult diapers along with a third smaller figure, were captured by an aerial surveying company.
“This is as close as you get, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, to an autopsy photo in this case,” Parker said.
But defence counsel Kim Ross told jurors whatever happened on the farm is inconsequential to the case, because there is nothing which links Garland to the crime scene.
Ross noted no DNA of the accused was discovered in the Likneses’ home.