One of the older girls who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the swarming death of Kenneth Lee has been sentenced to no additional jail time.
The girl will be subject to 15 months probation, after a judge recognized the time she already spent in custody and that she endured illegal strip searches while in a youth facility.
“I’ve been forced to face the hardest truth of all,” the girl, who was 16 at the time, read from a letter she’d written in court Friday morning. She said she was deeply remorseful for her part in the killing of Lee, saying she can’t ask his family for forgiveness but planned to “live every day with respect for the life that was taken.”
“I live in accountability.”
The girl said she plans to pursue her education, counselling and finding a job where she can help other young people.
“I want to prevent someone else from making the mistakes I made,” the girl read, saying she allowed herself to be “blinded by anger” that night.
Routine strip searches of girls in provincial custody ruled unconstitutional by Superior court judge
The decision comes after lawyers for four of the girls charged in the swarming death of Kenneth Lee challenged their treatment in custody.
Routine strip searches of girls in provincial custody ruled unconstitutional by Superior court judge
The decision comes after lawyers for four of the girls charged in the swarming death of Kenneth Lee challenged their treatment in custody.
Justice Philip Campbell, in his decision, noted the girl did not inflict the stab wounds against Lee, but that she was an “active participant” in the assault that led to his death.
As she struck Lee with an orange pylon, the judge said the risk of serious harm would have been evident, blood streaming down the mans face in the final wave of the attack. He acknowledged the girl’s involvement and fault is less than some of the others involved in the “unambiguously violent” assault.
Campbell called Lee an “obviously blameless victim ... both vulnerable and brave in the fact of the attack.”
The girls, he said, and their actions “defies most peoples’ expectation of violent bullies.”
“That is exactly what they were.”
Campbell said there were reasons for optimism this girl could be rehabilitated: That her parents were concerned for her and set a good example for her as well as the girl’s own ambition to be a lawyer one day.
He said a return to custody could be a setback and that sentencing her to probation “represents a hopeful investment” in her future.
The girl went to trial in Superior Court with one of her co-accused. After lawyers for the Crown and the defence presented all the evidence in the case, the girl entered the guilty plea. The girl’s co-accused at trial, facing conviction for second-degree murder, is still awaiting a decision in her case.
In an earlier hearing, Crown prosecutor Sarah De Filippis and the lawyer for the girl sentenced Friday, Ayderus Alawi, made a joint recommendation on sentencing to the judge of 15 months probation and no additional jail time.
De Filippis noted the girl had already spent 288 days in custody, 79 of which were in a more secure facility for youth where she was routinely strip searched. Campbell also ruled this week that the strips searches carried out in provincial facilities violated the girls’ charter rights. While four of the lawyers asked Campbell to throw out the charges against them, he instead ruled a sentence reduction was more appropriate while criticizing the government policies.
Eight teens, aged 13 to 16, were all originally charged with second-degree murder after Lee was fatally stabbed in a downtown parkette in December 2022. Lee, 59, and his female companion were visiting near a temporary shelter where the woman was staying. Lee, who was also homeless at the time, intervened after some of the girls tried to steal a bottle of alcohol from the woman.
In the more than two years since his death, almost all of the girls have pleaded guilty to lesser offences. Here is the status of their cases:
- Girl 1: Was 13 in December 2022.ÌýPleaded guilty to manslaughter in the Ontario Court of Justice on May 30, 2024 ahead of trial.ÌýSentenced to 21 months probation on Oct. 1, 2024.
- Girl 2: Was 13.ÌýPleaded guilty to assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm in the Ontario Court of Justice on June 4, 2024 ahead of trial.ÌýSentenced to 12 months probation on Sept. 24, 2024.
- Girl 3: Was 13.ÌýPleaded guilty to manslaughter in the Ontario Court of Justice on June 17, 2024 ahead of trial.ÌýSentenced to 15 months probation on Sept. 16, 2024.
- Girl 4: Was 14.ÌýPleaded guilty to manslaughter in the Ontario Court of Justice on June 24, 2024 ahead of trial.ÌýSentenced to 24 months probation on Sept. 24, 2024.
- Girl 5: Was 16.ÌýTrial for second-degree murder began Feb. 3.ÌýPleaded guilty to manslaughter on Feb. 18, after evidence phase of trial was concluded. Sentenced to 15 months probation on May 16.
- Girl 6: Was 16.ÌýPleaded guilty to assault on April 4, ahead of trial. Sentenced to nine months probation on May 6.
- Girl 7: Was 14. Pleaded guilty to manslaughter on May 5, the day her trial was set to begin. Has yet to be sentenced.
- Girl 8: Was 14.ÌýTrial for second-degree murder began Feb. 3. Pleaded guilty to manslaughter at the outset of the trial, but plea was rejected by Crown.ÌýScheduled for judgment on May 30.
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