Teen killer was obsessed with victim, court told
Tipping point came when he saw photos of girl, 16, with boyfriend
Details of a teenage killer’s obsession with 16-year-old Hannah Leflar in the months leading to her death at his hands have been provided in an agreed statement of facts filed by Crown and defence counsel at the boy’s sentencing hearing.
The now 19-year-old, has since pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the Jan. 12, 2015, death. He was 16 at the time, meaning he cannot be identified unless the Crown is successful in its application to have him sentenced as an adult.
A two-week sentencing hearing began on Monday to determine whether the youth will receive an adult sentence — automatic life — or a youth term which carries a maximum 10 years.
As part of the proceedings, Crown prosecutor Chris White and defence lawyers James Struthers and Corinne Maeder provided Queen’s Bench Justice Jennifer Pritchard with an agreed statement of facts, outlining details of the murder and the events that led to Leflar being stabbed to death in her own home.
The document says Leflar — a popular honour roll student — had once been involved in a romantic relationship with the teen, dating him from October 2013 until she ended the relationship the following May. The male didn’t take the breakup well and, in October 2014, hatched a plan dubbed “Project Zombify,” intended to include a number of his friends.
The plan was to involve the group in luring Leflar’s new boyfriend to an area behind a school and attacking him, the male going so far as to get baseball bats and knives, masks to conceal their identities and duct tape to keep their footwear impressions from being easily identified by authorities.
Anticipating Leflar might also turn up, the youth considered how best to deal with her as “collateral damage,” purchasing paint thinner as a substitute for chloroform.
The plan didn’t come to fruition as Leflar broke up with her thenboyfriend prior to the date set for the plan. The youth also didn’t follow through with an expressed desire to cut Leflar’s brakes.
In November and December, he tried to convince Leflar they should get back together, messaging her frequently through social media. Leflar made it clear she no longer had feelings for him and told him to leave her alone.
But the youth persisted, asking friends to help him keep tabs on Leflar, even asking one to re-establish a dormant friendship with her in order to feed him information about her personal life and whereabouts.
In January 2015, the youth created a dummy Facebook account to allow him to view Leflar’s profile — resulting, on Jan. 11, 2015, in his seeing photos of her with her newest boyfriend.
“These postings strongly suggested to the young person that the victim had moved on, and was happy with someone else,” reads the statement of facts. “As the young person had held out hope of reconciliation with the victim, his discoveries on January 11th proved to be a tipping point for him.”
As the young person had held out hope of reconciliation with the victim, his discoveries on January 11th proved to be a tipping point for him.
At about 1 a.m. on Jan. 12, he decided he was going to kill Leflar.
When attempts to recruit one friend went unanswered, he called on another friend, asking him to see to it Leflar was alone or with that friend after school. That friend met with Leflar that day to try to make the arrangements, leaving Leflar suspicious.
“I was like yeah, no there’s something sketchy about it I don’t trust him (sic),” Leflar texted her boyfriend after the meeting.
But when Leflar went home after school that day, the youth and the friend were waiting in a truck, the killer entering Leflar’s home and using a buck knife he brought along to stab and slash her numerous times in the trunk, arm, neck, hands and the back of her head — the last wound causing her death.
The youth injured his hand in the course of the attack and concocted a story he’d been out hunting and hurt himself while gutting a bird. Despite that and other attempts to cover up his crime, he was arrested soon after.