By Troy Gillard / rdnewsNOW

Jason Klaus says he lied when confessing involvement in family’s murders

Nov 22, 2017 | 1:29 PM

Jason Klaus says he was lying when he confessed to helping plan the murder of his family.

Klaus is on the witness stand again today at his trial in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench. He and Joshua Frank each face three counts of first degree murder in the Dec. 8, 2013 deaths of Gordon, Sandra and Monica Klaus.

Jason said he confessed for the first time to an undercover police officer in a Medicine Hat hotel room on June 2, 2014 in order to move up the ranks of the crime organization police had made him a part of.

“Even though I didn’t commit any murders, if I told them I was involved in the planning, Todd [Mr. Big] would make it go away,” Klaus said under oath Wednesday morning. “They would move me up in the organization… they would look after me.”

Klaus said he later recanted the confession after becoming suspicious that the crime organization members he was associating with were actually police officers. This after he was told they had a USB drive containing DNA proof showing he was at his family’s farm house on the night they were killed.  

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“You’re a cop aren’t you?” Klaus angrily asked the associate known as Johnny, someone he had grown quite close with.

“No I’m not,” Johnny replied. “If you think I am, there’s the door, get out!”

Klaus texted Johnny later on to recant his confession, saying he did not commit the crimes he’d admitted to. He told Johnny the criminal organization was no longer for him and that he wanted to do his own thing from now on.

“I denied that I was a part of it because for one thing it was not true,” Klaus testified. “[I also] believed they were cops. It didn’t feel right that I belonged with them or to them.”

Jason said his trust in the group was rebuilt later on during a trip to Lethbridge to get dirt on a border guard.  His involvement in the job led to the meeting at a condo in Calgary where Klaus expected Mr. Big to put him charge in of the organization’s southern Alberta operation.

That didn’t happen. When Mr. Big then said honesty was the key to moving up the ranks of his operation, Klaus confessed for a second time that he helped planned the killings of Gordon, Sandra and Monica.

“I wanted to rise up and have all the bells and whistles and the lifestyle they had and to be part of this family,” he explained, adding, “I told him the real person that had done this was Josh Frank… that I just assisted in the planning of it.”

Klaus said the confession he gave to police following two full days of interrogation in Aug. 2014 was also false.

“I told them I participated in the planning of the killing of my family because I knew Josh would say [that] if he were arrested. I was so wore down that I eventually just gave them a false confession.”

“Why not just tell the truth?” asked defence lawyer Allan Fay.

“At this point I was scared,” Klaus replied. “I was scared of going to jail. I didn’t do anything wrong, but was worried I’d be implicated.”

Klaus went on to say, “I just said it to tell them what they wanted to hear. I don’t know why I said it, I made a mistake. Looking back now I made a very big mistake in confessing because I did not take part in killing my family.”

Klaus will wrap up with his testimony this (Wednesday) afternoon before facing cross-examination from both the Crown and Frank’s defence team.