La Loche school shooter will learn his fate Friday
Victims anxious for closure in case that ‘drags on and on and on’
Friday can’t come soon enough for Phyllis Longobardi.
The former assistant principal at La Loche Dene High School has been waiting more than two years to learn whether the teen who shot her during a deadly school shooting spree will face life behind bars.
“It just drags on and on and on. And there’s no justice yet. No closure. Nobody can put closure to anything yet,” Longobardi said.
The shooter — who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act — was less than a month away from his 18th birthday when he killed two brothers in a home and then opened fire at the La Loche school on Jan. 22, 2016.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of brothers Dayne and Drayden Fontaine, two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of teacher’s aide Marie Janvier and teacher Adam Wood, and seven counts of attempted murder.
Judge Janet McIvor is expected to say Friday morning in La Loche provincial court whether the teen will be sentenced as an adult or a youth.
If sentenced as an adult, he will face life in prison and his name can be published. A youth sentence carries a maximum term of six years in custody and four years under supervision in the community.
The teen’s sentencing hearing occurred in Meadow Lake over a week in May and another in June.
Closing arguments in the case were initially scheduled for August 2017, but were delayed by two months because defence witnesses wrote to the judge saying new evidence suggested the shooter had fetal alcohol syndrome and the Crown wanted a chance to crossexamine the witnesses. Then, the Crown prosecutor was named a provincial court judge so a new prosecutor had to take over.
Longobardi said she’s frustrated with how long it has taken for the shooter to be sentenced.
“Our system just drags it out and drags it out and drags it out and I don’t understand why. He pleaded guilty, he’s pleaded guilty to murder,” Longobardi said.
“It’s murder. Boom. Adult sentence. Why should it take two bloody years to figure that one out?”
Longobardi now lives in Nova Scotia. She said she will not travel to Saskatchewan to hear whether the shooter is sentenced as a youth or an adult, but she knows she’ll hear about the decision immediately.
“I don’t think I’ll have a choice. It’ll be on Facebook. The phone will light up like a Christmas tree,” she said.
She hopes McIvor imposes an adult sentence, Longobardi added.
“If she lets him off (with a youth sentence), then it’s open season on every school, every student, every teacher, from students that are one day short of 18. She is going to set the standard. And if she doesn’t set it high enough, it’s open season on us and you can’t ask teachers and students to go into a school, go into a building and feel safe when they know that it could happen again.”
Charlene Klyne, a teacher who was among the people injured in the shooting, said she is also ready for Friday to be over.
“I don’t know why this had to drag on and on and on,” she said.
Klyne moved to Saskatoon after the shooting. She said she will not travel to La Loche this week to hear the sentencing decision.
Her son wants to be in court when the decision is read out, but she’s told him not to because she’s worried he will react with anger when he sees the shooter, she added.
“There’s going to be a lot of upset people and I’m sure there’s going to be fights.”
Since crossing paths with the shooter on Jan. 22, 2016, Klyne is blind and has lived with shotgun pellets scattered throughout her body. She is hoping to get a cornea transplant in the foreseeable future, which could allow her to see again.
Klyne said she wants the shooter to be locked away for life and she was frustrated to hear he will be taken home to hear his fate. She thinks it would have been better for the decision to have been read in Meadow Lake, where there are more security measures, she said.
“Everyone’s going to be up in arms when he’s there. To me, that’s the worst thing they could have done is taken him back there. I know there’s a lot of upset people and I just hope that they have a support network that doesn’t allow them to retaliate with guns.”
RCMP Staff Sgt. Rob Embree would not discuss what, if any, security measures RCMP will take in La Loche on Feb. 23.
The shooter’s defence lawyer has argued for a youth sentence.
Defence psychiatrist Dr. Mansfield Mela told the judge that the teen likely has fetal alcohol syndrome and displays mental disorders and brain functions that “are not adequate or optimal.” He said the shooter is a “simple” and “impressionistic” teen whose mind was “played upon” by videos he watched online of school shootings.
Many people who read victim impact statements in court last year asked McIvor to impose an adult sentence on the teen because of the severity of his crime and his apparent lack of remorse for his actions.
It’s murder. Boom. Adult sentence. Why should it take two bloody years to figure that one out?