Jason Klaus (right) and Joshua Frank, who were convicted on three counts of first-degree murder in 2017.

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

alberta court of appeal

Pair convicted in Castor triple murder have parole eligibility reverted to 25 years

Jun 25, 2022 | 2:41 PM

Two men convicted in the slayings of three family members in central Alberta nine years ago have again had their parole eligibility changed.

In 2013, Joshua Frank and Jason Klaus killed Klaus’s father, mother and sister at a burned out farmhouse near Castor, 90 minutes east of Red Deer.

They were convicted following a lengthy trial in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench in 2017, and given concurrent sentences meaning they could apply for parole after 25 years.

In February 2021, the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that a trial judge erred by not applying consecutive parole eligibilities for them. That decision meant Klaus and Frank must serve a minimum 50 years in prison before they could apply for release.

However, this week, a judge at the Alberta Court of Appeal in Calgary heard their sentence appeals, where it was decided that they could once again apply for parole after 25 years, replacing their previous consecutive parole ineligibility periods with concurrent ones.

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This stems from the result of a Supreme Court of Canada ruling — R v. Bissonnette — where the gunman who shot and killed six men at a mosque in Quebec City in 2017, was convicted but allowed to apply for parole after 25 years.

READ MORE: Quebec mosque disappointed with ruling allowing shooter to seek parole after 25 years

Five others were seriously injured in that attack, including one who was left a paraplegic, according to The Canadian Press.

Two other high-profile convictions received the same treatment as Klaus and Frank this week.

Derek Saretzky, who was convicted in 2017 of three counts of first-degree murder in connection to the deaths of Terry Blanchette, Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette and Hanne Meketech, can now apply for parole after 25 years. Sentenced at 22-years-old, the original ruling implied a prison stay until he turns 97.

The same applies to Edward Downey, convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in the July 2016 deaths of Sara Baillie and Taliyah Marsman.

READ MORE

Top court sends sentencing of two men in triple murder back to Alberta Appeal Court

A look at some recent convictions that have led to consecutive murder sentences

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