“I was going to start clapping’: victim’s dad after guilty verdicts in swarming

CALGARY – A jury convicted three men and acquitted another Thursday in the swarming death of a teen outside a Calgary nightclub three years ago.

Lukas Strasser-Hird, 18, was beaten, kicked and stabbed by a group of individuals outside Vinyl nightclub on Nov. 23, 2013. He died several hours later in hospital.

After six weeks of testimony, the jury took just over three days to find Franz Emir Cabrera and Assmar Ryiad Shlah guilty of second-degree murder — convictions that come with an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for between 10 to 25 years.

Shlah buried his head in his hands and appeared to be crying after the verdict was read.

Joch Pouk was found guilty of manslaughter, while Jordan Lee Liao was found not guilty of second-degree murder.

A fifth man, Nathan Gervais, is charged with first-degree murder, but remains at large.

“We’re pretty satisfied, especially with Assmar. We knew he was the instigator,” Dale Hird, the victim’s father, said outside court.

“I was going to start clapping in there but I knew it wouldn’t go over very well,” he added.

“Justice has been served for Lukas so far.”

Crown prosecutor Ken McCaffrey told reporters he and the police were pleased with the outcome.

“The jury took a long time. It’s quite obvious to me they looked at the evidence, as we hoped they would, very carefully and came back with a very just verdict,” he said.

But Balfour Der, who represented Shlah, was astounded at the verdict.

“I cannot for the life of me fathom how we got to this place. How this jury could convict Assmar Shlah on the evidence that was used?” Der said.

“I don’t even have words to try to reason this out. I’m trying to talk to him and his family and to explain it and I have no clue how these people could actually come to this verdict. He’s devastated. The boy’s sitting there crying and says ‘I never touched the guy. How am I guilty of murder?’”

A date for sentencing is expected to be set Aug. 5.

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