Prosecutor seeks adult sentence for man who killed care worker at 17
WETASKIWIN A 20-year-old who brutally killed a worker in his Camrose group home when he was 17 should be sentenced as an adult, a prosecutor argued Friday.
Crown prosecutor Ryan Pollard told court in Wetaskiwin the youth is a high risk to reoffend and a youth sentence falls short of the “meaningful consequences” the case demands.
“A youth sentence will not be enough to hold him accountable for the murder of Dianne McClements,” Pollard said. “He is intelligent. He knows right from wrong. He should not be considered so immature that an adult sentence isn’t appropriate.”
The maximum youth sentence for second-degree murder is seven years, while an adult sentence means a life sentence with no chance of parole for seven years.
Defence lawyer Kent Teskey said his client has shown progress while incarcerated and is too emotionally immature to be treated as an adult by the justice system.
“He has been described as a model inmate,” Teskey said as he argued for the maximum youth sentence. “He has a reasonable prospect of rehabilitation.”
McClements, 61, was killed in May 2012 when the youth cornered her in the basement pantry of the home, stabbed her, beat her, and left her body on the floor as he fled. In September 2014, the teen pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the killing inside the Marler Supported Independent Living home where he had lived for more than a year.
The teen confessed at least three times. He had stabbed McClements with the small paring knife until the blade snapped off, he told one witness, then grabbed a larger butcher knife and continued the attack.
The youth confessed again when he stopped at a friend’s house to wash his clothes.
“He said that he had been having a bad day,” according to an agreed statement of facts. Police arrested him the next day at his mother’s house.
For most of the sentencing hearing, the youth stared at his shoes in the prisoner’s box. At the end, he stood, faced McClements’ family and quietly addressed the court.
“The remorse and regret I feel is overwhelming. I’m sorry for what I’ve done. Please forgive me. I am ready to face the consequences.”
In a victim impact statement, Jeffrey McClements wrote about how he brought his mother coffee at her workplace so he could check on her. He tried to convince her to take a safer job, perhaps in real estate. She wouldn’t hear of it.
“I was uncomfortable at her workplace and was very open to her about it. She would get mad at me and tell me it was something she loved, helping kids and others find themselves and a way back into this world.”
Pollard has said there are no “readily apparent” answers to explain the killing.
Vinesh Gupta, a psychiatrist who examined the youth, testified the teen was defiant to authority and aggressive toward motherly figures. He expressed no remorse, Gupta said.
Court also heard the youth used to wear fake vampire fangs and bite people.
“One of the things he indicated was that voices in his head were telling him to kill people,” Gupta said
The youth’s identity is banned from publication under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. A sentencing date has not been scheduled.