The wife of an Alberta man shot to death on the side of a road east of Calgary shared an emotional hug with the prosecutor after a jury found two men guilty of second-degree murder on Saturday.
Jurors deliberated for 14 hours before concluding Arthur Penner and Elijah Strawberry shot and killed Colin Hough, 45, a Rocky View County employee, on Aug. 6, 2024, on a rural road.
“I love you,” Laurie Hough told prosecutor Photini Popadatou as they hugged after the verdict.
Neither Penner nor Strawberry seemed surprised by the court’s rulings, standing with clasped hands in front of them as the verdicts were read.
Both men were also found guilty of two counts of armed robbery, including stealing Hough’s vehicle and attempting to take the vehicle of FortisAlberta surveyor Matthew Andres, who was shot through the arm at the same location.
Andres was approached by two men who were driving a vehicle that appeared to have a flat tire. One of the men shot him in the arm and then demanded his keys and pointed a gun at his head. Andres was able to get away and watched from a distance as the truck driven by the two accused was set on fire and Hough went up to investigate.
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He said Penner and Strawberry ran up to Hough’s vehicle and started shooting at it. Hough was hit three times and left on the road. His vehicle was stolen.
But Andres said the two men were masked and he was unable to positively identify them as Penner and Strawberry.
The two men were initially also charged with attempted murder, but Crown Court judge Shane Parker withdrew the charge and acquitted them.
Strawberry and Penner face a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life. The jury was asked to make recommendations on how long each man should serve before being eligible for parole.
Results ranged from a minimum of 10 years to 25 years.
The sentencing date will be set for October 16. Strawberry’s attorney, Rebecca Snukul, has requested a forensic mental evaluation and a Gladue report for her client.
Penner’s attorney, Alex Seaman, also requested a Gladue report, often used in sentencing Indigenous individuals.
Sentencing arguments are expected to take place by November at the earliest.
The trial saw video footage from a nearby semi-trailer driver capturing Hough’s final minutes. It showed a figure moving across the intersection and collapsed in the middle of the road.
A .45-caliber bullet was found where he fell, and a nine-millimeter shell casing was found near where Andres was wounded.
Hough’s vehicle was later found abandoned. Penner, 37, was arrested five days later and Strawberry, 29, was found after a month in hiding at a residence on the O’Chiese First Nation.
&copies 2026 The Canadian Press
