By Troy Gillard / rdnewsNOW

Joshua Frank says he constantly lied to police during murder investigation

Nov 27, 2017 | 8:25 AM

In their testimonies this week, Jason Klaus and Joshua Frank each said it was the other who shot and killed Gordon, Sandra and Monica Klaus.

Yet when they spoke to police, both during an undercover operation and following their arrests, they each said it was Frank who committed the murders.

Frank said under oath Saturday in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench that the reason for this was he was lying.

Frank testified Friday that while he was at the Klaus farm in the early morning hours of Dec. 8, 2013 he was not the one who shot and killed the family.

He said the said the story he provided to police was given to him by Klaus during a conversation in June 2014 at a fishing spot near Huber Dam.

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Frank testified that during that meeting Klaus said he was looking to become a full-time member of a criminal organization he’d been associating with, but that he first needed to tie up any loose ends in order for that to happen.

Frank could help, Klaus insisted, by backing up his story that it was Frank who shot and killed Gordon, Sandra and Monica, as that’s what he had told members of the crime organization.

“Why would you say that I did that?” Frank asked him.

“You’ve already been through police interviews, passed the polygraph… there should be no worry for you,” Klaus told him.

Frank testified the story given to him that day by Klaus was the same one he himself told “Mr. Big” on July 19, 2014 before leading them through re-enactments of what had happened.

Frank was asked Saturday by his lawyer, Andrea Urquhart, why he would do all of this.

“I figured Jason told me I had to do this,” he replied. “I already passed the polygraph. I wasn’t a suspect, so I figured if I helped Jason with this I’d be out of his shadow.”

Frank then faced cross-examination from Allan Fay, Klaus’s defence lawyer.

Throughout their exchange, Frank maintained everything he’d told police in multiple meetings during their investigation, and in interviews following his arrest, was a lie.

“I told a lot of lies, and those snowballed into more lies,” he told Fay at one point.

Frank held firm that his testimony this week in court is the true account of what took place. Frank also told Fay he was wrong when he said Klaus never sexually assaulted him when he was a teenager.

Frank will be back on the stand when the trial resumes on Monday.