Calgary jury in Alberta highway shooting death hears closing arguments

The Calgary Courts Centre is pictured in Calgary, Monday, May 6, 2024. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

A Crown prosecutor in a second-degree murder trial in Calgary told the jury that nobody else besides the two accused could have committed a roadside shooting in southern Alberta that claimed the life of one man and wounded another.

“When you examine all the evidence as a whole, you must ask yourself, are there any other reasonable explanations?” prosecutor Photini Popadatou said to the jury during closing arguments Thursday.

Arthur Penner and Elijah Strawberry have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and two armed robberies relating to a roadside shooting in August 2024 where Colin Hough was killed and Mark Andres was injured.

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

Andres, a power company worker, testified before the jury that the two men drove up while he worked beside a rural road east of Calgary and one shot him through the arm.

He also described having a gun pointed at his head several times before he was able to flee.

Andres said the truck the two men were in was then set on fire.

Hough, who worked for Rocky View County, arrived at the scene and was fatally shot before his truck was stolen.

“It’s a circumstantial case of identity and it’s the Crown’s position that the offences before you involve two shooters, two guns, two stolen vehicles, two robberies, one death and both these men are responsible,” Popadatou said.

Hough was shot three times. Video footage from a nearby semi-trailer driver captured his final minutes with a figure moving across the intersection and collapsing in the middle of the road.

A .45-calibre bullet was found where he had collapsed and a nine-millimetre 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 hiding in a residence on the O’Chiese First Nation.

“In some ways, I feel like I’ve given you a 2,000-piece puzzle and I’ve put it in a box and I’ve shaken it and I’ve thrown it at you and we’ve spent the last 15 days putting those pieces together,” said Papadatou.

The jury is to hear from lawyers for Penner and Strawberry later Thursday. Deliberations are expected to begin Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 28, 2026.

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press