By Troy Gillard

free man

Sawyer strikes manslaughter plea deal

Apr 20, 2019 | 11:08 AM

Daniel Boyd Sawyer is a free man.

The 34-year-old pleaded guilty in a Calgary courtroom this week to manslaughter in relation to the stabbing death of a man outside a north Red Deer pub in November 2015.

Sawyer was originally charged with second-degree murder before pleading guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter. He was sentenced to five years behind bars, but with 1.5 times credit for time already served was free to go as of Thursday evening.

Alan Beach, 31, died from injuries he suffered during an altercation outside the Blarney Stone pub at Village Mall on the night of November 18, 2015.

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The altercation took place after Beach was confronted by Vasilios (Bill) Georgopoulos, to whom he owed a drug debt. When Beach left the pub to go outside for a cigarette, he was attacked by a group including Georgopoulos and Sawyer.

Georgopoulos, who was originally charged with manslaughter, pleaded guilty in 2017 to a lesser charge of assault and was sentenced to 45 days in jail.

Sawyer turned himself into police nine days after the altercation and had been in custody ever since leading up to Thursday.

Video surveillance footage from that night was present, but there was no evidence showing Sawyer was the one who stabbed Beach.

A trial for Sawyer got underway in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench in November. However, after a jury heard testimony from a handful of witnesses the trial became mired in lengthy arguments over evidence admissibility. The jury went weeks without hearing any new evidence before Justice Bill Hopkins declared a mistrial on January 10.

Defence lawyer Chris Archer successfully applied to have the trial moved to Calgary in order to get an earlier date for Sawyer.

This is the second time Sawyer has been convicted of manslaughter. He served a four-year sentence following his previous conviction on 2005.