In a significant legal ruling, the Alberta Court of Appeal has overturned the double-murder convictions of a Calgary man, leading to his immediate release after more than five years in custody.
Acquittal After Life Sentence
Gerald David Benn is now a free man after a three-judge panel of the province's top court entered acquittals on his behalf on Monday, January 19, 2026. Benn had been serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 15 years for the fatal shootings of Mohamed Shaikh and Abas Ibrahim on August 28, 2020.
The shootings occurred on Sandarac Road N.W. in Calgary. Benn was arrested on September 6, 2020, and was subsequently found guilty of two counts of second-degree murder by Calgary Court of King’s Bench Justice Nick Devlin in 2023.
Appeal Court's Rationale for Overturning the Conviction
In a written decision, the Appeal Court agreed with arguments from Benn's lawyer, Alias Sanders, that the circumstantial evidence used to convict him was insufficient. The court found that the evidence could have reasonably pointed to someone else as the shooter.
"The appellant’s guilt is not the only reasonable possibility when viewing the totality of the evidence and therefore that evidence is not sufficient to establish the appellant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt," the appeal judges stated.
Justice Devlin's original conviction relied heavily on two key pieces of circumstantial evidence:
- Benn's DNA on a Wendy’s bag and his fingerprints on a Walmart bag that were carried by the gunman and left at the scene.
- Grainy CCTV footage of the shootings, which the trial judge concluded showed multiple similarities between the gunman and Benn.
The trial judge had noted similarities in size, weight, body shape, facial profile, and haircut. He concluded that, combined with the forensic evidence on the bags, it left no reasonable possibility that someone else was the shooter.
Risk of "Unconscious Cognitive Bias"
The Appeal Court panel took issue with this analysis, stating it "carried a high risk of unconscious cognitive bias." The judges argued that the traits identified from the video were "traits that many individuals possess."
"In the absence of any expert evidence about the statistical commonality of these seemingly quite ordinary traits, we have difficulty seeing the evidential basis for the trial judge’s conclusion," the ruling explained.
The court noted that the forensic evidence alone created suspicion but did not rule out other reasonable explanations for how Benn's DNA and fingerprints ended up on the bags found at the crime scene.
Unlike many appeal decisions that order a new trial, the panel took the rare step of finding Benn not guilty outright, citing the insufficiency of the evidence.
Immediate Release and Case Conclusion
With the entry of acquittals, Benn was released from custody. He had spent over five years behind bars since his arrest in 2020. The decision marks a dramatic end to a case that relied entirely on circumstantial evidence linking the accused to the tragic 2020 homicides.
This ruling underscores the high standard of proof required in Canadian criminal law—guilt beyond a reasonable doubt—and the appellate courts' role in scrutinizing the strength of circumstantial evidence before it can support a conviction, especially one carrying a life sentence.
