2017-01-25 Travis Vader gets life sentence for killing Alta. seniors | CTV

Published by Bretton McCann, January 25th, 2017

Travis Vader gets life sentence for killing Alta. seniors

CTV Calgary: Travis Vader handed life sentence

Seven years after the killings, a judge has handed Travis Vader a life sentence for the murders of Lyle and Marie MccCann.

CTV News Channel: Vader sentenced to life

CTV legal analyst Ed Prutschi weighs in on the life sentence handed down to Travis Vader.

CTV News Channel: Vader gets life in prison

Travis Vader has been sentenced to life in prison for the murders of Lyle and Marie McCann. Bill Fortier reports.

Chris Purdy, The Canadian Press
Published Wednesday, January 25, 2017 5:06AM EST
Last Updated Wednesday, January 25, 2017 2:16PM EST

EDMONTON -- A judge has sentenced a man to life in prison for killing two Alberta seniors who disappeared on a camping trip, but Travis Vader's lawyer says an appeal will be filed before the week is out.

Vader was found guilty of manslaughter last fall in the deaths of Lyle and Marie McCann, who were in their 70s when they vanished after leaving their home in St. Albert, just north of Edmonton, in July 2010.

Court of Queen's Bench Justice Denny Thomas dismissed a defence submission that Vader should get a lesser sentence because his rights were violated in custody. He did, however, agree to a defence request that Vader serve his sentence in British Columbia because of threats he has received.

Photos

Travis Vader arrives at court in Edmonton on Tuesday, March 8, 2016. (THE CANADIAN PRESS / Amber Bracken)

Travis Vader's defence lawyer Brian Beresh speaks to media outside court in Edmonton, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2017. (Jason Franson / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Crown prosecutor Ashley Finlayson speaks to media outside court after the sentencing for Travis Vader in Edmonton, on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2017. (Jason Franson / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Thomas said Vader will be eligible for parole in seven years.

"This court has convicted an innocent man and I will continue to fight until I clear my name," Vader said Wednesday before the sentence was handed down.

Vader's lawyer, Brian Beresh, said outside court that his client "was not pleased."

"As he said in court, he will fight to his last day to prove he is innocent. We intend to launch that fight, probably this week, by filing a notice of appeal."

Beresh said the case is troubling.

"After 40 years of practice, I must say this is one of those few cases which haunts me and remains a mystery in terms of what occurred and how we have gotten to this point."

Some members of the McCann family, including son Bret McCann, were listening via video link from Australia, where they are visiting his daughter.

They had to get up at 2 a.m. for a two-hour drive to a courthouse in Melbourne to hear the sentence.

"When the judge said life imprisonment, it was a huge relief," McCann said. "I would have gone anywhere to hear that."

McCann said the family is thrilled to know that "Vader will spend the prime years of his life in prison and the public will be protected from this criminal."

He said there can never be true closure for the family because nothing will bring his parents back. "But this is definitely a chapter closing ... We're going to make an attempt to go on with our lives."

The family hopes that Vader's failure to acknowledge his crime and his lack of remorse will persuade future parole board panels to keep him in prison. The family will be at those hearings, he said.

Crown prosecutor Ashley Finlayson pointed out that just because Vader will be eligible for parole after seven years, "it does not mean he will get parole.

"In fact, we're confident the parole board will deal with everything appropriately."

The McCanns' burned-out motorhome and a vehicle they had been towing were discovered in the days after they disappeared, but their bodies have never been found.

During his verdict last year, Thomas described Vader as a desperate drug addict who came across the McCanns and killed them during a robbery.

The Crown had asked for a life sentence. Prosecutors argued Vader showed no remorse after the killings, used the McCanns' cellphone the same day to call an ex-girlfriend and took their money to buy beer and a phone card.

The defence suggested Vader should receive four to six years, but get at least six years of credit for pre-trial custody.

Vader's lawyer Nathan Whitling had argued that the case was based on speculation, because there were no witnesses and the McCanns' remains have not been found, so it is impossible to say how they died.

The time Vader has spent in custody on the case is complicated. He was arrested on outstanding charges when the McCanns disappeared, but was not charged in their deaths until 2012. The Crown stayed murder charges before a trial in 2014, then reactivated them months later.