By Canadian Press

Killer of Calgary Stampeder to learn how long he must wait to seek parole

Jun 5, 2019 | 2:06 AM

CALGARY — The killer of a Calgary Stampeders football player is to find out today how long he must wait before he can seek parole.

A judge found Nelson Lugela guilty earlier this year of second-degree murder in the death of Mylan Hicks.

Hicks, a 23-year-old player on the practice roster of the Canadian Football League Stampeders, was shot outside Calgary’s Marquee Beer Market in 2016.

Lugela faces an automatic life sentence and the court must determine how long he should serve before he can apply for parole.

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The Crown has asked for an ineligibility period of between 17 and 19 years, while the defence said 14 years is appropriate.

The trial heard that several Stampeders, including Hicks, had been celebrating a victory when a disagreement over a spilled drink in the bar intensified in a parking lot after closing time.

Witnesses testified that after some pushing and shoving, a person who appeared to be holding a handgun opened fire at Hicks as he was running for cover.

Hicks was hit twice, in the abdomen and chest, and died in hospital.

Court heard Lugela and two other young men jumped into an SUV and sped away. Three people were arrested about 45 minutes later when they returned to the scene.

Several witnesses identified Lugela as the man holding the gun.

Hicks’s mother, Renee Hill, who travelled to Calgary from Detroit, told Lugela’s sentencing hearing last week that she’s angry her son survived the crime-filled streets of his hometown only to be gunned down in Canada.

At times wiping away tears, she told court that her son, “with an almost jungle-like mentality, safely walked through the fire of Detroit,” yet didn’t last one year living in Calgary.

Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press