One of Canada’s longest prison sentences handed to Calgary killer
Posted February 17, 2017 1:20 pm.
Last Updated February 17, 2017 2:01 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CALGARY, AB. (NEWS 1130) – A judge has ruled that triple murderer Douglas Garland will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Justice David Gates imposed a sentence on the 57-year-old that would prevent his seeking parole for 75 years. Gates says Garland carried out the murders with “meticulous planning and precision.”
Garland said “no” when asked if he had anything to say in court.
A jury convicted Garland of three counts of first-degree murder for the 2014 deaths of Alvin and Kathy Liknes and their five-year-old grandson Nathan O’Brien.
Garland assaulted the trio in a Calgary home on June 30, 2014, transported them to his family farm north of the city, murdered and dismembered them and then burned their bodies to ash.
The father of the little boy killed says his two remaining sons face the “everlasting loss” of their best friend.
Rod O’Brien told the killer’s sentencing hearing that his sons still ask him who hurt five-year-old Nathan and why did their brother have to die.
Douglas Garland was found guilty of first-degree murder on Thursday in the deaths of Nathan O’Brien and Alvin and Kathy Liknes.
O’Brien recalled in his victim impact statement how he told Nathan he loved him before the boy went to hang out with his grandparents on June 29, 2014. O’Brien said he and his wife will go home to only two sons for the rest of their lives.
