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It’s taken more than five years and involved a flight from justice to Vietnam, but Calgarian Nathan Gervais finally began standing trial Monday for murder.

Gervais pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder in the swarming death of city teen Lukas Strasser-Hird in November 2013.

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Crown prosecutor Samina Dhalla, in her opening address to Court of Queen’s Bench Justice William Tilleman, said Gervais stabbed Strasser-Hird, 18, during a gang attack behind a city nightclub the morning of Nov. 23, 2013.

“The Crown anticipates you will hear evidence that there were two altercations on the evening of Lukas’ death,” Dhalla said.

“The first took place at the front of the Vinyl nightclub, a bar that used to exist in downtown Calgary, and the second took place in the back alley behind the Vinyl.”

Dhalla said the initial altercation was triggered by Strasser-Hird complaining about someone in Gervais’ group uttering a racial slur.