Despite the pain, a mother hugged her son’s killer in court Tuesday.
“He was our friend,” she said with tears in her eyes during a victim’s impact statement. “How could a friend do this to our family?”
The Fort Hope teen, now 17, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2010 stabbing death of another teen considered family, someone who protected him from bullies during troubled school years.
At a sentencing hearing in Superior Court Tuesday, the court heard that the teen had been sniffing gas and other solvents before attending a high school dance where the victim was. Various witnesses said that the victim had talked about and tried to fight the accused but the teen, who can’t be named, didn’t want to.
But at some point the two did fight and during it the accused stabbed a teen he considered his brother five times, including a fatal blow to the right upper chest. He was pronounced dead at a community nursing station.
The victim’s mother spoke of being numb since her son’s death. She left the community and hasn’t been back since. Only now is she starting to feel the pain of losing him at 17.
“I don’t want to remember the loss of my son,” she told a court over flowing with friends and family as the accused stared at the floor.
The Crown is asking for two years, with credit for six months the accused has already served.
It’s up to Justice Helen Pierce whether that would be served in custody or not. Defense counsel Chris Watkins is asking that she consider the context of the crime including a community that is plagued by suicides and substance abuse. Since living in Thunder Bay the accused is sober and has a lot of support from friends and family.
Pierce will make her decision May 28.
