No parole for killer grandson of trucking queen Viola Erb for 17 years

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Remorseless killer Erick Buhr will have to wait for 17 years before he can apply for parole.

Buhr was convicted of second-degree murder in November for the heartless murder of his elderly grandmother, trucking queen Viola Erb.

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Second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence. On Tuesday, Buhr learned his fate from Justice Gerry Taylor, who took the prosecution’s recommendation.

Taylor told a Kitchener court that Buhr had shown no remorse for the heinous crime.

“Viola Erb’s life was terminated by an extreme act of violence and for no reason,” Taylor told Buhr.

According to cops, on Sept. 24, 2022, Buhr — who was under house arrest at the time — claimed he was smoking cocaine in a wooded area behind his grandmother’s Baden home. He said he went inside the home and found his grandmother badly injured.

Buhr was under house arrest for a June 2022 sexual interference conviction.

Crown Prosecutor Jennifer Caskie said during her sentencing submissions that Viola Erb was defenceless when her grandson struck. Caskie called the attack “brutal” and “prolonged.”

The wayward grandson testified in his defence. At sentencing, he represented himself and continues to maintain his innocence.

CTV reports that he told family members in court: “I just want to say to my family that I share your pain. I’m left without grandma as well.”

In a bizarre gambit, Buhr not only asked for 12-year parole eligibility he also proposed an unheard of 3-to-1 credit for the approximately 29 months he’s already spent behind bars. That would erase 7.5 years off his sentence.

Buhr’s dead-time scam was quickly torpedoed.

Buhr will also be required to provide a DNA sample and an order preventing him from contacting 21 members of his extended family.

Victim impact statements outlined how the horrific crime tore the Erb family apart.

Buhr’s mother, Karen Erb, told the court: “She was my world and I was hers.”

She added that on that horrific day, she not only lost her mother but also her son. She blamed her son’s drug addiction for the murder.

“I know you didn’t choose to murder your grandmother, but drugs did,” she said.

Viola’s nephew, Warren Erb, wrote that she was murdered by someone she loved.

“This murder has devastated her family,” he wrote.

Viola Erb and her late husband founded the Erb Group in 1959. Today it is one of North America’s largest privately-owned refrigerated transportation providers.

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun