Teen goes on trial for murder of convenience store clerk
Ricky Massin Cenabre left the Philippines in 2011 to work in Canada, with dreams of eventually bringing his common-law wife and young son to a new country for a better future.
He stayed in Canada for five years in an effort to obtain permanent residency and was finally able to make plans to return home in April 2016 to marry his partner of 23 years, his family says.
But he was not able to return to the Philippines. On Dec. 18, 2015, he was one of two Mac’s convenience store workers killed during armed robberies at two separate southside stores — one in Mill Woods at 3208 82 St. and one at 10845 61 Ave.
Two adults and a 13-year-old boy were arrested in connection to the attack. The boy, now 16, pleaded guilty to all charges he faced Monday, except for the first-degree murder charge in Cenabre’s death. Following the pleas, a trial got underway for the murder charge.
The teen, whose identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, admitted to manslaughter in the death of Karanpal Singh Bhangu, who was working when he was shot and killed in the Mill Woods store, and he also pleaded guilty to two counts each of committing a robbery with a prohibited or restricted weapon, and two counts of committing an offence while masked.
According to an agreed statement of facts entered at the beginning of the trial, the teen admits to being one of the three masked people visible on surveillance footage police recovered from both stores as they were being robbed.
Cenabre’s fiance, Editha Alcazaren, the couple’s 18-year-old son, John Cedric Cenabre, and their niece Faith Alcazaren were in court Monday as the footage was played, showing the intruders bursting into the store, assaulting, robbing and then shooting Ricky Cenabre.
The family is in Canada on tourist visas and are getting help from friends so that they are able to attend trials for each of the three suspects.
Uncertain how they will be able to stay in Edmonton for the final suspect’s trial, Faith Alcazaren said the family feels abandoned by the criminal justice system.
“We feel it’s so unfair. This is not our country, we don’t know what to do,” Alcazaren said during an interview outside the courthouse Monday as she spoke both on behalf of the family and to interpret for her aunt.
The family is hopeful there will be some way John Cedric Cenabre can stay and study or work in Canada so that he can have the future his father wanted for him.
A jury convicted one of the adults accused in the killings, Laylin Delorme, of two counts of first-degree murder in June. The other adult suspect, Colten Steinhauer, has yet to go to trial.
The trial for the youth is expected to continue Tuesday.