Prockner sheds tears at accomplice’s hearing
Murderer gives few solid answers about friend’s role in Leflar killing
The typically unemotional Skylar Prockner choked up on Monday, resting his glasses on the shelf surrounding the witness box to wipe tears from his eyes as he recounted details of the murder of his 16-yearold ex-girlfriend Hannah Leflar.
This time, it was his 19-year-old accomplice who remained more or less stone-faced as his sentencing hearing began on Monday.
Both Prockner and the 19-yearold were 16 at the time of the Jan. 12, 2015, murder. Shortly after they were charged, the Crown announced it would be seeking adult sentences against both. Prockner later pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and, in July at the conclusion of a hearing, a Court of Queen’s Bench judge handed him an adult life sentence with no parole eligibility for 10 years. Prockner is appealing that decision.
On Monday, the Crown began a similar hearing against Prockner’s accomplice, who previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. In the case of that charge, an adult sentence would carry the mandatory life with no parole eligibility for seven years.
If sentenced as a youth, the maximum term is seven years, split between custody and community supervision.
Prockner was one of two witnesses called Monday by co-Crown prosecutors Chris White and Lori O’Connor. During his testimony, Prockner said he couldn’t recall certain details surrounding the incident, including a text he sent to his accomplice in the hours before the murder, stating “Halloween happens today.”
The text would appear to reference a plot from the previous year dubbed Project Zombify. According to an agreed statement of facts filed with the court, Prockner planned an attack for Halloween 2014 on Leflar’s then-boyfriend.
The plan came to nothing as Leflar broke up with that boy earlier that October.
But Prockner continued to watch Leflar and, on the night of Jan. 11, 2015, he saw a picture of her on social media with her new boyfriend — a find that proved the tipping point.
Court heard Prockner recruited his then-16-year-old lifelong friend to help him in his plans. While there was no suggestion the youth helped Prockner plot the murder, court heard he nonetheless played a part in the killing.
Prockner provided few solid answers on Monday about his accomplice’s role, testifying he didn’t believe he told his friend about his intention to kill Leflar until he picked him up from school that day.
He was asked by both the Crown and defence lawyer Greg Wilson whether his friend tried to talk him out of it. Prockner stated that if he did, “I wasn’t listening.”
He told the court the other youth “said he felt kind of excited or agitated about what was about to happen” when the two pulled up outside Leflar’s Regina home, Prockner adding it was possible his friend was “trying to express his doubts.”
But when Prockner told his friend to wait in the truck, his friend refused.
Prockner said both of them were armed with knives when they went inside, and he choked up as he detailed what came next, recalling pursuing Leflar into a bedroom and stabbing her to death.
While he said he experienced a “black spot” in his memory between the first knife wound and the last, he said he remembered the other male standing in the doorway and, at one point, possibly getting up from a crouching position at Leflar’s feet.
“It kind of looked like maybe he was helping me, maybe he was holding her legs down, stopping her from kicking,” he said.
But during cross-examination, he admitted his memory was spotty and he wasn’t certain about that detail.
While he testified both of them had knives out, Prockner said the other youth never used his.