Thirteen years after truck driver Vic Fraser was stabbed to death in Surrey, B.C., his killer has been found guilty of second-degree murder.
Gary Johnston was in the process of robbing Fraser's sister's home in March 1998 when the 43-year-old truck driver interrupted him. He stabbed Fraser nine times in the neck.
Fraser's sister Jeanie told reporters outside a New Westminster courtroom that she was pleased by the verdict. "I am really happy that this guy isn't going to be out on the streets of Vancouver destroying someone else's family," she said.
Johnston wasn't arrested until more than 11 years after Fraser's death.
Surrey RCMP said Johnston's name surfaced early in the investigation, but there wasn't enough evidence to lay charges until an unsolved homicide unit was set up in the detachment in 2005, leading to new information in the case. He eventually confessed to an undercover cop posing as a crime boss and was arrested in Montreal in 2009.
At the time of his arrest, Johnston was on parole for a manslaughter conviction.
Surrey RCMP Insp. Trent Rolfe called Friday's verdict "a fitting end to a tragic, senseless crime" in a press release.
"Investigating unsolved murders are like no other. With witnesses who have moved on and memories fading, what remains constant, however, is the pain suffered by the victim's family and their need for resolution," he said.
Johnston's B.C. Supreme Court trial began in March but was interrupted when he was quarantined because of an H1N1 flu outbreak at North Fraser Pre-Trial Centre.
With files from The Canadian Press
