HUNTER: Did grandson murder wealthy trucking queen Viola Erb?

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Published Oct 21, 2024  •  3 minute read

ON TRIAL: Erick Buhr is on trial for the murder of his grandma, trucking mogul Viola Erb. KW POLICE

Everyone knew Viola Erb as the queen of the road in Ontario’s trucking industry.

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Tough but big-hearted, Erb, 88, was co-founder of Erb Transport with her late husband. But the highway of her life would end violently in her long-time home in Baden, west of Kitchener, on Sept. 27, 2022.

Cops say the accused killer is her grandson, Erick Buhr, 40. He is now on trial for second-degree murder in Kitchener.

Buhr had his woes before the brutal slaying. He had been under house arrest at the time of his grandmother’s murder. He had been using non-medically-prescribed drugs at the time, and the judge instructed the jury to ignore these facts.

Viola Erb was murdered in her Baden home in 2022. Photo by MARK JUTZI FUNERAL HOME /TORONTO SUN

The slaying shocked the local community not only because of whom the victim was, but who the cops arrested.

An autopsy revealed that Viola Erb died of multiple “blunt-force impacts”, particularly to her head. Her brain had been deprived of oxygen and there was blood in her lungs, court has heard.

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Detectives later found bloody clothing and footwear in Buhr’s bedroom. Buhr claimed he was in a nearby forest at the time his grandma was murdered, but his ankle monitor revealed he was in the vicinity of his grandmother’s home at the time of her slaying, according to the Crown.

The blood on Buhr’s jeans belonged to his grandmother, court has heard.

The trial continues.

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ANOTHER JUDGE GETS IT RIGHT

Plea deals make the world go round in Canada’s overwhelmed justice system. Seldom does a judge say, “Uh no, ain’t happening.”

Last week, it did happen in a horrific sex case in Niagara.

“At the end of the day, and I’m using the vernacular here, I can tell you it’s making vomit at the back of my throat,” Judge Lynn Robinson said in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines, as per the Niagara Falls Review.

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“I’m able to keep it down, but it’s there.”

This was the matter of Kellen Colbey. In 2022, he began sexually abusing the girl — aged between 16 and 17 at the time — and got her hooked on cocaine.

The Crown and defence called for a two-year jail sentence. The judge called the idea “unhinged,” adding it would bring the administration of justice into disrepute. It would be three years in federal prison for Kellen Colbey.

With people like Robinson on the bench, maybe all is not lost after all.

AHMED ISMAIL: Have gun will travel. HRPS

HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL

Convicted killer Ahmed Ismail was not quite ready to hang up his guns after murdering 16-year-old Ezekiel Agyemang on June 29, 2020. Not by a long shot.

Instead, our roving triggerman moved across the country to Lotusland. There, on Oct. 6, 2020, while wanted for first-degree murder in the Agyemang slaying, our hero got an itchy trigger finger.

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On Oct. 20, 2020, outside Vancouver’s Bells and Whistles pub, Ismail opened fire on Mir Aali Hussain as he left the watering hole. Of no consequence to the idiotic gunman was the presence of Hussain’s wife, along with their three-year-old and six-month-old baby.

Ezekiel Agyemang, 16, of Brampton, was kidnapped June 29, 2020 and found shot dead the next day in Milton. He was completely innocent. Photo by Handout /Halton Regional Police

It later emerged that Ismail and another thug had been offered big dough to ice Hussain, who suffered only minor injuries. The dim duo were nabbed when they crashed their Jeep into a parked car.

Ismail pleaded guilty to attempted murder. The big shooter and his pal were sentenced to 10 years in prison but, hey, let’s not be too hard … after pre-trial consideration, he was hit with 5.5 years.

On Oct. 4, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the Agyemang murder. He is slated to be sentenced on Dec. 17

Of course, there will be none of that sentence-stacking stuff that might cause the Supreme Court of Canada to have one of their toddler tantrums.

Hell, they might order Ismail to receive the Order of Canada.

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@HunterTOSun

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