Sean Airey received a two year prison sentence Friday after the 27-year-old admitted to helping murder suspect Nathan Gervais flee the country in 2016.
Airey had been charged with forging a passport, making false statements, and accessory after the fact to murder for his contributions to Gervais’ escape to Vietnam ahead of a murder trial in 2016. Airey pleaded guilty to the accessory charge and received a 24-month sentence.
A second man, 21-year-old Marshall Thomas Quillian, faces the same charges that Airey was originally charged with but Quillian entered a plea of not guilty and has applied for bail.
Nathan Gervais was charged with first-degree murder in connection to the November 2013 swarming death of 18-year-old Lukas Strasser-Hird outside of a Beltline nightclub but the accused disappeared prior to the start of his trial in 2016. Gervais was arrested in Vietnam in 2017 and returned to Calgary in February 2018.
Deborah Hird, Lukas Strasser-Hird's grandmother, says Gervais' disappearance had troubled the victim's family. "The fact that they helped him escape affected everyone," said Hird. "It affected the trial. It affected the mental health of Lukas' parents that someone that was accused of first degree murder in their son's death may never face the consequences."
Final arguments in Gervais’ trial were scheduled for March 7, 2019 but the judge agreed to the defence’s request for additional time to review the Crown’s written arguments. The case has been adjourned to April 5, 2019.
