Tony Bechara's family confronted Glen Mayer in a Windsor courtroom as his lawyer announced plans to appeal his first-degree murder conviction.

This was a hearing with no suspense about the number. First-degree murder in Canada means life and 25 years before parole, no matter what anyone says in court. What the day did offer was the family's grief and a notice from the defence that the fight is not over. Mayer's story was self-defence and intoxication. The jury heard texts that read like a warning, and rejected it.

Tony Bechara's mother and brother described how their lives have been shattered during Glen Mayer's sentencing hearing in a Windsor, Ontario, courtroom on Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, CBC News reported. At the end of June, a jury found Mayer, 49, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Bechara, the man he learned had been having an affair with his wife, according to CBC News. A first-degree murder conviction in Canada carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years, CBC News reported.

Bechara's brother, John, read a statement saying "the emotional pain has been devastating" and "the loss of my brother has changed my life forever," CBC News reported. A family member read a statement from Bechara's mother, Lilianne, who found it too difficult to sit through the two-week trial. "Part of my heart was taken away from me," she wrote, according to CBC News. "His chair is empty, but his absence fills every room." CBC News reported Mayer was allowed to sit without restraints next to his lawyers, and that his mother, father and children sat behind him for part of the proceeding. Bechara was a manager at the Bourbon Tap & Grill, CBC News reported.

According to the evidence described by CBC News, Mayer found out about the affair in the overnight hours of Jan. 20, 2024, after seeing messages on his wife's phone, then texted Bechara that "everyone loses today" and "I'll speed up your karma." Jurors heard he left his LaSalle home with his registered handgun and drove to Bechara's home in Belle River. Mayer testified he brought the gun to use on himself, and claimed Bechara grabbed a knife and came toward him before he fired multiple times, CBC News reported. He turned himself in to the LaSalle Police Service hours later with his father, and surveillance video played in court showed him telling a 911 dispatcher he was involved in a murder, according to CBC News.

The defence argued self-defence and also claimed Mayer was heavily intoxicated, CBC News reported, while the Crown questioned how he could drive more than an hour without crashing or being stopped if he was as drunk as he claimed. After Monday's hearing, defence lawyer Julianna Greenspan said she plans to file an appeal of the guilty verdict within 30 days but declined to give the grounds, CBC News reported. "The preference is to have it filed before the court, and that's really where it should come out," she said. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.