Canada’s top court will not be hearing an appeal from Nathan Gervais — a Calgary man found guilty of murder in the swarming death of Lukas Strasser-Hird.
The decision was published on the Supreme Court of Canada’s website Thursday, with no reason given.
Strasser-Hird had just returned home to Canada after studying abroad and was out celebrating with friends on Nov. 23, 2013 when the attack happened.
The 18-year-old aspiring trauma surgeon was swarmed, kicked, stabbed and beaten beyond recognition outside Calgary’s Vinyl nightclub.
Gervais was convicted of first-degree murder in 2019 after his arrest in Vietnam in 2018.
Gervais appealed that conviction in Alberta’s top court in June 2020, arguing Justice William Tilleman erred in his ruling that Gervais had killed someone while committing another offence — forcible confinement.
However the Court of Appeal disagreed. Court of Appeal Justice Marina Paperny wrote the trial judge “applied the correct legal principles regarding the requirement that confinement be continuous and be distinct from the act of killing.”
Following his conviction, Gervais was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
Gervais was originally scheduled to stand trial in May 2016, along with four other men, but fled to Vietnam just before the trial began.
Franz Cabrera and Assmar Shlah were found guilty of second-degree murder. Joch Pouk was found guilty of manslaughter, while the fifth suspect was acquitted.
In 2019, the Supreme Court also dismissed appeals from Cabrera and Shlah.
— With files from The Canadian Press