19-year-old get life sentence for cousin's murder

A teenaged girl from a First Nations community near Pickle Lake has been given a life sentence for the November 2009 murder of another teenager. 

Kecia Spade, 19, of the Mishkeegogamang First Nation was arrested following the stabbing death of her cousin, 18-year-old Mariah Wesley. 

Spade was originally charged with first-degree murder, but on Monday at Thunder Bay's Superior Court of Justice she pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree murder.

That was followed by the judge handing her a life sentence.

Spade will not be eligible to apply for parole until 2019, which will be 10 years after the murder took place. 

Family members, including Chief Connie Gray-McKay, were in the courtroom for the case's conclusion. 

The chief spoke to the court, and said her community has lost two young women because of the senseless tragedy.