Teenager who killed baby sentenced as an adult

A Saskatoon courtroom erupted in applause after a provincial court judge ruled the woman who killed a stranger’s sixweek-old baby boy when she was 16 years old will be sentenced as an adult for second-degree murder.

The now 18-year-old woman received the maximum sentence applicable to a 16-year-old convicted of murder as an adult: life in prison with no parole eligibility for seven years.

The Crown proved that the teen’s lack of maturity, which would usually reduce her moral blameworthiness, was not attributed to her age but instead to fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, Judge Sanjeev Anand said in giving his decision in Saskatoon provincial court on Tuesday.

He also found the youth sentence for second-degree murder — four years in custody and three years of community supervision — would not be long enough to hold the teen accountable for her crime.

“You had the ability to control your actions. You didn’t,” Anand told the woman, who sat with her head in her hands in the prisoner’s box.

On July 3, 2016, she punched, stomped and strangled baby Nikosis in a fit of anger. Court heard she had been drinking alcohol at the home of Nikosis’s extended family, who took her in for the night because she was homeless, and wandered into the baby’s room when she heard crying.

“I took all my anger out on that baby,” the teen later told police. Court heard she also told youth workers she was afraid it could happen again.

That’s why a life sentence is the best outcome, Crown prosecutor Jennifer Claxton-Viczko said outside court. “It’s not only the best outcome for the public in terms of protecting the public, but it’s the best outcome for the offender herself … it gives her structure. It lessens the risk to us but also lessens the risk to her,” she said.

Anand agreed an adult sentence can ensure the teen’s safe reintegration into society. “She needs lifelong support,” Anand said, acknowledging the teen cannot control the root causes of her actions.

Defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle said the decision to appeal what he called a unique, precedent-setting case will be up to his client. He said this is the first time, to his knowledge, that a court has interpreted the moral blameworthiness test as age-related and not related to any other cognitive issues.

The life sentence didn’t come as a surprise to his client, Pfefferle said. “I don’t even think I’d say she’s disappointed. Her mental capacity was so diminished that getting a reaction from a verdict like this is even difficult,” he told reporters.