Life in prison for murder of Niagara Falls man

A Niagara Falls man has been sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 12 years for his role in the abduction and murder of a 49-year-old father of three.

A jury in August found Tom Nagy, 28, guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Alex Fraser. He had been on trial for first-degree murder.

At a sentencing hearing in Superior Court of Justice in St. Catharines on Friday, Judge Robert Reid said any sentence imposed must be “proportionate to the gravity of the offence.”

Fraser was abducted from Gonder’s Flats in Fort Erie on Boxing Day 2014. After being assaulted, his head was bound with duct tape and his wrists and ankles were tied and he was thrown from a railway bridge over the Welland River near Chippawa.

It is unknown if Fraser was beaten to death before he was tossed into the frigid water or if he died from drowning.

“Either way, the murder was horrific,” the judge said.

“Mr. Fraser was aware of his imminent death. He was helpless to defend himself.”

Court was told Nagy assisted Brad MacGarvie, a former MMA fighter, in the murder of Fraser just eight-and-a-half weeks after he was released from custody after serving a two-year jail term.

MacGarvie, 26, was convicted of first-degree murder in August and sentenced to life behind bars with no possibility of parole for 25 years.

He testified at trial that he beat Fraser to death and that Nagy did not participate in the assault.

Duran Wilson, 32, was sentenced at an earlier date to six years behind bars on a charge of manslaughter.

Victoria Harvey, 23, was also charged with first-degree murder in connection with the case. She pleaded guilty to manslaughter in February 2016 and received a fouryear jail term. She testified against the three defendants.

Court heard Harvey worked as an escort and often called on Fraser, a driver at an illegal cab company, to take her to see clients.

She and her mother, who also worked as an escort, were with Nagy, Wilson and MacGarvie the night of the murder. alangley@postmedia.com Twitter/@nfallslangley