Elmira teen who killed mom guilty of second-degree murder

KITCHENER — An Elmira teenager who fatally stabbed his mother after she restricted his computer time is guilty of second-degree murder but not first-degree murder, a judge ruled on Tuesday.

The teen had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the killing on Nov. 30, 2017, but the Crown refused to accept it, instead seeking a conviction for first-degree murder — a planned and deliberate homicide.

Superior Court Justice Paul Sweeny ruled the Crown failed to prove those elements beyond a reasonable doubt.

“The nature of this murder suggests it was not planned and deliberate,” the judge said.

The teen, whose identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, stabbed and cut his mother 66 times.

He then barricaded the front and garage doors and lived in the house with her decomposing body for weeks. He fooled family members into thinking she was still alive. He told them she was sick or her phone was broken.

At 1 a.m. on the day of the murder, the teen Googled, “How hard is the skull,” Crown prosecutor Melissa Ernewein said at the judge-alone trial. Soon after, the teen began stabbing his mom in her bed, she said.

Ernewein said the Google search points to planning and deliberation.

But defence lawyer Bruce Ritter said the search may have happened after the murder, and the judge agreed. Ritter also noted the teen did not search for “stabbing.”

Bloodstains in the house suggest the woman ran away when her son first attacked her, Ritter said. If the murder had been planned, one would expect “more control of the victim,” he said.

Photos shown at the trial revealed bloodstains throughout her bedroom — on a pillow, the bedsheets, the walls, the floor, a nightstand and a dresser.

Dozens of other bloodstains were found in many other parts of the house — on the walls and ceiling of a hallway, a hallway closet door, the kitchen floor, a bathroom door — suggesting she was attacked more than once before she died.

If the teen had planned the murder, he likely would have had a getaway plan, Ritter said. Instead, he remained in the house for weeks because he had no clue what to do next, Ritter said.

The woman’s brother testified he talked to her about her son a few days before she was murdered. He said she told him her son’s grades had dropped.

“I told her that with our kids, if their grades go down, we cut gaming off completely until it goes back up,” he said. “She thought that was not a bad idea.”

Described as quiet and introverted, the teen spent much of his free time playing online computer games.

Although the killer was a youth at the time of the murder, Ernewein wants him sentenced as an adult. Ritter wants him sentenced as a youth.

An adult sentenced for second-degree murder gets life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 10 years and as many as 25 years.

The maximum for a youth is four years in custody followed by three years of community supervision.

The case returns to court on Aug. 28.