Calgary jury being asked to solve the “puzzle” of the fatal shooting on Alta highway

CALGARY – The jury in a second-degree murder trial in Calgary is being asked to put the puzzle pieces together on whether two men shot and killed a man along a roadside highway in southern Alberta in 2024.

The Crown says nobody other than Arthur Penner and Elijah Strawberry could have been responsible in the fatal shooting of Colin Hough on Aug. 6, 2024.

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

Penner and Strawberry have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and to two armed robberies relating to a roadside shooting where Hough was killed and Matthew Andres was injured.

“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.

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 that day, 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,” Papadatou said.

“In killing Mr. Hough, they acted together, they both shot him, they shot him multiple times and their actions, in these circumstances, would equate to second-degree murder.”

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.

Penner’s lawyer, Alexandra Seaman, said in no way is she trying to diminish the loss of Hough’s life or the pain his family and friends have suffered.

“I want to acknowledge the tragedy at the heart of this case. Mr. Colin Hough lost his life. His death was senseless,” she said.

“Sympathy for his loss cannot replace the burden of proof the Crown must prove beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Seaman told the jury that this is indeed a circumstantial case and it is like a puzzle.

“Many of those puzzle pieces are missing while you try to make the picture. Perhaps, most importantly, you have not heard any evidence of who shot Matthew Andres or Mr. Colin Hough,” she said.

“No one is able to tell you who did it in this case. This puzzle has too many missing pieces to reveal a reliable picture.”

Rebecca Snukal, representing Strawberry, acknowledged it isn’t easy after a man lost his life and another man was seriously injured. She says it’s also difficult for the jury and lawyers trying the case.

“We’re human too. The difference is that the justice system asks all of us, especially you, to feel those things without letting it affect the verdict,” Snukal said.

She said the Crown laid out a trail of evidence wanting the jury to convict her client.

“I just disagree about where it leads. This trail has multiple, reasonable destinations.”

Snukal said the Crown case is full of holes.

“You didn’t hear any witness say that man was at that scene. No witness did, there’s no photo lineups, no moment where someone pointed at Mr. Strawberry,” she said.

“This is the structural problem with the case the Crown cannot paper over.”

The case will go to the jury after instructions from Justice Shane Parker, on Friday.

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