Calgary jury convicts 3 men in Douglasdale fatal beating

Three men on trial for first-degree murder in the beating death of Chad Kowalchuk have been found guilty of lesser offences after a jury returned its verdict on Day 3 of deliberations. 

Justin Boucher, 31, and Robert Sims, 31, were convicted of manslaughter while Ronald Abraham, 42, was convicted of second-degree murder.

After a seven-week first-degree murder trial, most of which was held in the high-security courtroom, jurors began deliberating Friday morning and returned with a verdict Sunday afternoon. 

Sentencing for the three men will likely take place in the new year. 

Kowalchuk, 53, lived with two roommates in his Douglasdale home at the time of his death. 

One of his roommates, Justin Urban, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder earlier this year and was handed a life sentence with no chance of parole for 16 years. 

Jurors heard that, in February 2022, the four killers originally planned to rob Kowalchuk, who had health issues and spent most of his time in his bedroom, where he kept a safe containing drugs.

Kowalchuk's other roommate — a woman — spread a rumour that he was a pedophile, so the planned robbery evolved into a physical attack.

On Feb. 13, 2022, the group of men got into Kowalchuk's home with help from his roommates, entered his bedroom and began their violent attack. 

Two of the victim's fingers were nearly cut off, jurors were told. Kowalchuk was tied up, beaten and left for dead on the floor of his room. 

The men ransacked the house over the next several days. On Feb. 18, the house was set on fire in an effort to destroy evidence, prosecutor Vicki Faulkner told jurors on the first day of the trial. 

Responding firefighters discovered Kowalchuk's body in his second-storey bedroom. 

Abraham, who is represented by defence lawyer Dale Fedorchuk, faces a life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 to 25 years. 

In the new year, Justice Lisa Silver will hear sentencing arguments from Boucher's lawyers, Pawel Milczarek and Kim Arial, as well as Sims's lawyer, Jeinis Patel.