The second man convicted of triple murder for the deaths of a Castor family is appealing his life sentence.
Joshua Frank filed a notice of appeal last week. His accomplice, Jason Klaus, filed a similar notice two months ago.
In February, both men were convicted and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years for killing Klaus’ parents Gordon and Sandra and his sister Monica in the family farmhouse in December 2013.
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In his notice of appeal paperwork, Frank ticked off the box that he is applying for a leave to appeal his conviction “on the grounds involving a question of fact alone or a question of mixed law and fact, and if leave be granted, hereby appeals against the said conviction.”
Under a section asking what relief is sought, Frank printed “a new trial, to overturn my conviction.”
No other details on the grounds he hopes to appeal his sentence are included in the notice filed on March 2.
Frank reveals that he does not have a lawyer now. “I am seeking counsel,” he printed.
Frank had been represented by Calgary lawyers Tonii Roulston and Andrea Urquhart, who defended him during a six-week trial that wrapped up last November.
At the time he filed his appeal, Frank was in the Calgary Remand Centre waiting to be sent to a federal penitentiary. “I don’t know which one yet,” he says.
In sentencing, Justice Eric Macklin said he was convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that Frank and Klaus plotted and carried out the murders and burned the house down to destroy evidence.
Macklin said that Frank shot the family members in their beds with a nine-millimetre Ruger handgun and set the fire. He also shot the family dog.
Confessions coaxed out of both men during a four-month RCMP Mr. Big sting operation in mid-2014 were central to the Crown prosecutors’ case.
Klaus says in his appeal notice that the Mr. Big evidence should not have been allowed.
Klaus also contends a separate judge made a mistake by allowing the trial to go ahead at all because his right to a speedy trial had been violated.
He also added his reasons for appeal include “such further grounds as my counsel may argue.”
pcowley@reddeeradvocate.com
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