A man facing the rest of his life in prison for murdering his wife will have his appeal heard early in September.
Brian Volker, 50, was convicted of first degree murder on April 5, 2011, for the Feb. 23, 2009, shooting death of his estranged wife.
A jury found that Volker shot his wife Debra in the head with a .22-calibre sawed-off rifle in her Delburne home on Feb. 23.
A week later, on April 10, he was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years.
Volker filed an appeal within a month of his April 2011 conviction. His appeal was last spoken to on May 14.
The appeal will be heard again at the Calgary Court of Appeal on Sept. 10.
Debi Volker was found shot in the head in the bedroom of her home.
Volker testified he didn’t remember anything between 10:30 p.m., on Feb. 22, 2009, and the afternoon of Feb. 24, after taking five sleeping pills, 15 mg each of a drug called oxazepam, and two ounces of straight alcohol.
The couple’s children, aged 11, 14 and 16 at the time of the murder, were in the home at the time of the incident.
Volker was also convicted of break and enter, committing an assault with a weapon an four counts of breaching conditions of a release from custody and sentenced to seven years, concurrent to the murder conviction.