A man from Calgary who was serving a life sentence for two murder charges has had his convictions overturned by the highest court in the province. The Alberta Court of Appeal declared on Monday that the guilty verdict was unjust due to significant flaws in the trial judge’s evaluation of the evidence.
Following more than five years in custody since his arrest in September 2020, Gerald Benn is now set to be released from prison. The court’s decision was in agreement with Benn’s appeal lawyer, Alias Sanders, who argued that the evidence presented did not support the conviction, a stance that was also advocated by Benn’s original lawyer, Andrea Urquhart.
The case involved a shooting incident on August 8, 2020, in Calgary’s Sandstone Valley that resulted in the deaths of Abas Ahmed Ibrahim, 27, and Mohamed Khalid Shaikh, 19, with another individual, Dimetri Marr, sustaining injuries. The trial had initially concluded in 2023, with Court of King’s Bench Justice Nick Devlin attributing the shooting to Benn based on fingerprints and DNA found on bags located in the vehicle linked to the crime.
However, the appeal court highlighted several discrepancies in the evidence presented during the trial. Only four out of the 27 fingerprints discovered on a Walmart bag were identified as Benn’s, with the rest remaining unaccounted for. Similarly, while Benn’s DNA was found on a Wendy’s bag, there was no concrete evidence provided regarding the circumstances of its deposition.
Moreover, the reliance on grainy CCTV footage to link Benn to the shooter was criticized by the appeal court, emphasizing the potential bias introduced by comparing low-quality video images of an unknown individual to high-quality images of Benn taken during his arrest. Additionally, the absence of Benn’s fingerprints inside the vehicle in which the shooter was seen touching further raised doubts about his involvement in the crime.
The court of appeal underscored the lack of evidence linking Benn to the other individuals in the shooter’s vehicle and questioned the trial judge’s assertion that no other individual resembling Benn could have been the perpetrator. Ultimately, the appeal court concluded that the totality of the evidence should have left room for reasonable doubt regarding Benn’s role as the shooter, leading to the overturning of his convictions and his impending release from prison.