Airdrie-area resident Douglas Garland will not only stand trial in connection with the 2014 murders of a Calgary couple and their young grandson, he will also face a third first-degree murder charge, a Provincial Court judge decided on May 27.
Airdrie-area resident Douglas Garland will not only stand trial in connection with the 2014 murders of a Calgary couple and their young grandson, he will also face a third first-degree murder charge, a Provincial Court judge decided on May 27.
Garland had been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the disappearance of Alvin and Kathy Liknes, and second-degree murder related to the disappearance of their grandson, five-year-old Nathan O'Brien, in June 2014.
However, at the end of the preliminary inquiry into whether there was enough evidence to send Garland to trial, Crown prosecutor Shane Parker asked Judge Bob Wilkins to charge Garland with first-degree murder in relation to the death of O'Brien.
Wilkins first told the courtroom he found sufficient evidence for a jury to possibly convict Garland and he was therefore committed to trial. Wilkins then agreed to Parker's request for Garland to face three charges of first-degree murder.
Outside the Calgary courthouse, Parker said he could not elaborate on why he sought the third first-degree murder charge because of the publication ban Judge Wilkins had imposed on the proceedings May 9, opening day of the preliminary inquiry.
Those sitting in the gallery were seen hugging each other and wiping away tears after Judge Wilkins committed Garland to stand trial.
Garland was stoic throughout the day, sitting in a blue prison jumpsuit, his feet shackled, listening intently as Parker and his colleague Vicki Faulkner called four witnesses.
Kim Ross, Garland's lawyer, said had yet to talk to his client after Wilkins' ruling, but said “ he's holding up as best as can be expected in these circumstances.”
Barb Beaudry, a niece of Alvin Liknes who attended the inquiry on May 27, told the press, "He's a monster.”
She told the media that the additional first-degree murder charge was welcomed “ but I wish he just pled guilty. It's awful for everybody.”
Garland will appear in Court of Queen's Bench on July 31 when a trial date will be set. Ross said it's possible a trial could last six weeks and take place within 12 to 18 months.
Regarding the addition of a third first-degree murder charge, Ross said simply, “ The judge committed on the three first (degree charges), so it was his decision.”
On June 29, 2014, O'Brien had an impromptu sleepover at his grandparents' southwest Calgary home. His mother, Jennifer O'Brien, returned the next day to pick him up and discovered no one was home.
CBC.ca has reported Calgary police said July 4, 2014, that blood was found in the Liknes' home and that a violent struggle likely took place.
Garland, 54, was questioned July 5, 2014, while investigators launched a massive search of his parents' property northeast of Airdrie. He was arrested and formally charged on July 14, 2014.
The bodies of Alvin and Kathy Liknes and Nathan O'Brien have never been found.
Members of the Calgary Police Service and the RCMP returned to the Garland property on March 29, 2015, to once again search the site.
The Garlands and the Liknes' have a family connection while Alvin Liknes and Doug Garland at one time had a business relationship that reportedly ended badly. Allan Liknes, son of Alvin, has a common-law relationship with Doug Garland's sister.
Garland has had a run-in with the law before. In 1992, he was accused of producing methamphetamines at his parents' Airdrie acreage, but he disappeared before facing charges in court. He was later discovered living in Vancouver, B.C., under an assumed name, that of a 14-year-old Alberta male who had died in a car crash in 1980.
