‘I broke your heart’

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This article was published 23/04/2018 (2342 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At the end of a court hearing permeated by both grief and horror, one of Serena McKay’s killers turned to the victim’s family, and offered an emotional apology for her part in the Sagkeeng teen’s murder.

“There are no words to describe how sorry I am,” she told McKay’s family. “I broke your heart.”

In the hush of a first-floor courtroom, the 18-year-old’s voice quivered. She was still a minor in April 2017, when McKay was killed, and so cannot be named; in December, she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Tuesday, she told the court, her crime still haunts her. She “can’t imagine how much pain” McKay’s family is enduring, she said, and she acknowledged that seeing her face must be hurtful to them.

“I still have nightmares of what happened,” she said. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of what I’ve done. I’ve hurt a lot of people. I’ve hurt my community, my loved ones…

“I don’t want to touch a drop of alcohol again. I want to do things in Serena’s honour. I pray for you guys to have strength and guidance through this healing.”

Tuesday’s sentencing hearing arrived exactly one year and one day after McKay’s battered body was found in a yard on Sagkeeng First Nation, about 120 kilometres north of Winnipeg. The 19-year-old had been badly beaten and left to die outside in the April chill.

A pathologist later determined that McKay died from hypothermia in the hours after the assault. Temperatures that night dipped below freezing, and her injuries likely prevented her from seeking help or shelter, court heard.

Another Sagkeeng teen involved in the beating pleaded guilty to manslaughter earlier this year.

In the wake of the girl’s slaying, the community’s grief turned to horror as they learned that two short videos of the fatal assault were circulating across social media. Both videos were taken on the 17-year-old attacker’s phone.

McKay’s mother, Delores Daniels, saw one of the videos when it popped up on her Facebook feed.

On Tuesday, Daniels told the court about the trauma of that grisly discovery, and the “nightmare” of a parent’s grief. Holding an eagle feather, she remembered her only daughter as being beautiful and kind.

“I dream about her,” Daniels said, breaking into tears. “I wake up crying and sad that she is not here and wonder what she would have become in life.”

Including Daniels, 24 of McKay’s loved ones submitted victim impact statements. The Crown also submitted statements from people who felt traumatized after seeing the video online, including two outside of Canada.

Judge Rocky Pollack will decide which of those statements to accept in the court record.

Now, the judge must decide the teen’s sentence. The Crown is asking for the maximum youth sentence, which would include four years in custody and 1 1/2 years in a supervised home, in addition to time served.

Defence lawyer Greg Brodsky is seeking one year in custody, plus probation.

To inform Pollack’s sentencing decision, which will be delivered Thursday morning, both videos were shown in court. As they played, the teen doubled over in the prisoner’s box, laid her face in her hands and sobbed.

Court also heard what led to the assault, according to the facts agreed upon by both defence and Crown.

On the night of April 22, 2017, a small group had gathered at a home in Sagkeeng, where an argument erupted between McKay and the other girl, then 16 years old, who pleaded guilty in her killing.

McKay was “aggressive,” court heard, and at first, the 17-year-old tried to get her to “calm down.”

To defuse the situation, she initially tried to isolate McKay in a bathroom. Later, she wanted to call police, but the 16-year-old who instigated the assault urged her not to, as the younger girl had outstanding warrants.

When tensions continued to escalate, they locked McKay outside. The 16-year-old then began to assault McKay outside; at some point she requested the 17-year-old, who had remained in the house, to join her in the attack.

Initially, court heard, the 17-year-old took the videos to show McKay “not to get into trouble again, because this is what happens.” After the attack, she sent the videos to a shocked friend, along with a series of text messages.

“(The 16-year-old) was hold her down for me. I stomped her the f— out,” one read.

In another message, she remarked “my bloody hand lmao,” an acronym which means “laughing my ass off.” She also texted a friend that “if you go outside you can probably hear Serena screaming.”

Despite the offender’s recent expressions of remorse, the Crown pointed out, those messages are anything but remorseful. Brodsky noted that at that time, the youths did not think that McKay would die.

Brodsky also told the court about the pain that shaped the young woman’s own life. After her father died of an overdose in 2014, she fell into alcohol and drug use, and was hospitalized after multiple suicide attempts.

Her life took a positive turn when she became pregnant at age 16: that was “the best year of my life,” Brodsky quoted her as saying. She now has a 15-month-old son, who is currently in her mother’s care.

That all went away, the night she helped kill McKay. “I ruined my life over nothing,” Brodsky quoted her as saying. “(McKay) didn’t have to die.”

Court also heard that, since she was arrested last year, the teen has been a “model prisoner” at the Manitoba Youth Centre. She is respectful and helpful with staff, and a positive role model to other incarcerated youths.

She has participated in extensive therapeutic and rehabilitative programming, and is attending school. Psychological assessments have declared she is not a risk to reoffend, Brodsky told court.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca