An 18-year-old who admitted to driving away from the scene of a fatal attack outside an Edmonton high school has been sentenced to 12 months of probation.
The young man was 15 when he was charged in 2022 — one of seven youths accused in the death of a Grade 10 student, who died in hospital a few days after he was stabbed.
The name of the victim and the school he attended are covered by a court-ordered publication ban. None of the accused, whose ages ranged from 14 to 17 at the time of the assault, can be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
All of them were initially charged with second-degree murder, but those charges were later downgraded to manslaughter. The young man in this case pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of accessory after the fact to an assault with a weapon.
At his sentencing in the Edmonton Court of King’s Bench on Wednesday, he stood and read an apology letter to the victim’s family.
“What happened to me or my family makes no difference but I want you to know that I’ve had no peace since that day,” he said.
“So many lives were ruined … but all that matters is an innocent person’s life was taken away.”
Three other young people in the case have pleaded guilty:
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A woman who was 17 when the attack happened admitted that she drove another car away from the scene. She pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to an assault with a weapon, and was sentenced to 12 months probation.
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A teen who was 15 at the time admitted he was part of a group assault on the victim, but did not stab or punch him. The teen pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received four months in jail.
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Another teen, who was 14 at the time, pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He’s expected to be sentenced in early 2025.
One of the teens began a trial earlier this year, but it’s been adjourned until next spring. The two remaining accused went to trial together this week.
‘An unbearable tragedy’
The court heard that the young man who was sentenced Wednesday gave a ride to another boy involved in the case, but didn’t directly participate in the group attack.
“He was not part of the assault that turned deadly,” defence lawyer Brij Mohan said. “And it’s so important for everyone to know he never, ever emerged from his vehicle.”
Crown prosecutor Robin Prihar read a victim impact statement from the principal of the school where the attack took place. The principal described how it “forever altered” the staff and school community, and made many parents fearful about sending their children to class.
Another statement from the school counsellor described students’ trauma responses after the attack, and how those who witnessed it from a nearby bus stop reported it was like “a movie they could not stop replaying in their mind.”
Prihar also read a statement from a relative of the boy who was killed.
“He had an entire life ahead of him, a future brimming with promise and potential. We had dreams of watching [him] grow into a remarkable young man,” she said.
“[He] was a bright light in our lives — a light that was extinguished far too soon.”
Court of King’s Bench Justice Rodney Jerke accepted a joint submission on the sentence from the Crown and defence. He noted that it was appropriate that the accused in this case receive essentially the same sentence as the 17-year-old girl who drove the other car with some of the youths who were charged.
But he spoke of the difficulty of reducing “an unthinkable tragedy, an unbearable tragedy” to a decision.
“When I consider this case today, and as it has now marked me and everyone in this room in the years to come, I will be thinking about the consequences of the beyond foolish conduct of a 15-year-old boy, which has resulted in harm in so many directions,” Jerke said.
“Your father and grandfather are here. This is not a moment of pride for them,” he told the young man.
“One could feel pride that you took accountability by entering a guilty plea, but when we think about it today, and as marked by your conduct in years to come, this will mean bowed heads for a very long time.”
Jerke also stressed the importance of recognizing youth are sentenced differently than adults, and the court must take both community safety and rehabilitation for young people into account.
Next trial underway
A manslaughter trial for two of the accused, who were 14 and 16 at the time of the assault, began Thursday.
Crown prosecutor Bethan Franklyn told the court she will present evidence showing that the victim was violently assaulted in a “five-on-one attack” with weapons including a knife, a field hockey stick and BB guns.
A woman who witnessed the attack testified Thursday that she was waiting to pick up her child from school when she noticed a group of boys that she initially thought was “horsing around.”
She described how she realized that wasn’t the case as one boy was “herded” into one area, then punched and hit with a hockey stick. She said she also heard several shots that sounded like they came from an airsoft gun.
The witness described how a man approached the group and yelled at them, and the teens took off. She said the boy who was attacked stumbled and fell to the ground, and she called 911 and began chest compressions as he lost consciousness.
Defence lawyers Rahul Nanda and Daryl Royer questioned how well the woman could actually see what unfolded from a distance. Nanda pointed out that while she reported seeing someone in the group swing the field hockey stick at the victim, surveillance video played in court Thursday doesn’t show that happening.
Royer suggested she couldn’t be sure whether everyone in the group she saw actually assaulted the victim.
“Don’t you think it’s possible that one of the boys in this group was just there to see it or watch it?” he asked.
“Could have been,” she responded.
The judge-alone trial is expected to last several weeks, ending in mid-December.