Joshua Frank had just been looking to score some cocaine when he unwittingly wound up connected to a triple murder, he testified Friday.
Frank, 32, had no idea what was to come that cold December night in 2013 when Jason Klaus picked him up in his Suburban, according to his testimony in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench Friday.
Klaus, 41, and Frank had been drinking earlier that evening at Castor’s Cosmopolitan Hotel when Frank asked if he could get some cocaine. Klaus said he could get some.
Less than an hour later, Frank got into Klaus’ black Suburban and drove to his family farm about 10 km northeast of Castor on Dec. 8, 2013. As they got close to the farm, Klaus seemed keyed up.
“I looked over at him and noticed he was really tense,” said Frank, who has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder and took the stand in his own defence.
Klaus, who is also facing three charges of first-degree murder, then told him, “If you want to make it through this night you will shut the f**k up and do what I tell you.”
Frank testified Klaus parked the Suburban at a tree line near the farmyard and warned him to sit there, not make any noise “and don’t even think about leaving.”
Frank watched as Klaus went into his parents’ house. He then saw him come out, heard a noise, and saw Klaus’ arm go up followed by a muzzle flash.
Klaus came back to the Suburban and ordered Frank to follow him to a white pickup, which Frank got in, started and waited.
He testified he saw Klaus then go into a Quonset hut and come out carrying a jerry can which he took into the house.
Klaus returned and ordered Frank to follow him in the pickup up Hwy 36 to a spot near the Battle River, where he left the truck and was told to get rid of the keys.
Driving back to Castor, Frank tried to get Klaus to tell him what was going on.
“I asked him, ‘J(ason), what the f**k just happened?”
Klaus said nothing, so he prodded him again.
“He looked at me and yelled. He said, ‘I told you to shut the f**k up. I just lost my entire family. I’m in no mood for your bulls**t.’
“There was this look in his eyes. Just pure anger,” Frank testified.
Klaus dropped Frank off near Castor with a final warning. “If you tell anyone about this you’re f**kin’ dead.”
Frank said he walked back to his room at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, sat on the bed and cried.
“Something terrible obviously just happened. I was there. What’s going to happen now?”
Frank testified that he was intimidated by Klaus, who had raped him twice when he was a teen and had beaten him up.
Police believe Gordon and Sandra Klaus and their daughter, Monica, were shot to death that morning and the farmhouse was burned down to destroy any evidence.
Frank’s testimony about what happened that night is at odds with what he told an undercover RCMP officer in a Mr. Big undercover sting operation.
In a meeting at a gas station in the CrossIron Mills mall parking lot in July 2014, Frank recounted in detail how he shot the Klaus family and burned the house down. A video of the meeting was played in court earlier in the trial.
Testifying in his own defence, Klaus fingered Frank as the shooter. The Klauses were killed when Frank panicked and shot them while trying to steal a valuable mounted deer head from their home, Klaus testified.
The two had gone to the family farm to steal a pickup as part of an insurance scam, Klaus said in court. He would only find out about the murders from Frank days later.
In his cross-examination Crown prosecutor Douglas Taylor, asked Klaus why he did not tell police about the pickup theft scheme when they began investigating the murders.
Klaus said he did not say anything because he realized the plan was a “big mistake.”
Taylor said there were about 30 occasions up until his Aug. 15, 2014 arrest when police asked Klaus if he knew anything about the murders or who could be responsible. Every time Klaus said no.
He was fearful that Frank would carry through on threats to hurt him, he said.
“Every day of my incarceration I realize I made a mistake,” he said, adding his family and the community wanted answers.
“I had the answers. I didn’t come forward.”
Taylor suggested to Klaus that his confession to planning the murders with Frank, whom he said did the shooting, was the truth. The confession came after hours of police interviewing the day after his arrest.
“That’s not true. I did not plan the murder of my family and I did not kill my family,” he said.
The trial continues on Saturday, during a rare weekend sitting. Frank will continue his testimony.
pcowley@reddeeradvocate.com
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