Defence seeks youth sentence for son who bludgeoned mom to death

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This article was published 07/11/2022 (778 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Defence lawyers for a Winnipeg man convicted of bludgeoning his mother to death when he was a teen are seeking the maximum youth sentence of seven years in custody.

The man, now 20, was charged with first-degree murder in the March 2019 slaying of his 51-year-old mother. He was found guilty of the lesser offence of second-degree murder in a June trial.

The Free Press is not naming the victim, nor the man’s father and step-mother, as it would identify the accused, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. He was 16 at the time of the murder.

On Tuesday, defence lawyer Matt Gould focused on concerns about access to parole if his client serves an adult sentence in the provincial system. Gould also touched on the widespread support the man has from family and friends — several have professed belief in his innocence — while arguing before King’s Bench Justice Anne Turner the man should be sentenced as a young offender.

Supporters, including members of the victim’s family, packed the Winnipeg courtroom, showing visible emotion, with tissues clenched in their fists, as the convicted man, his father and step-mother spoke to Turner.

“You will be hard-pressed to find a boy that has the heart and intelligence of mine,” the father said. “Whether (he’s) with family, friends or strangers, he’s always kind and thoughtful and respectful.”

He said his son has never been violent and had never been in trouble with the law.

While the 20-year-old continues to show his positive characteristics while in custody at provincial Milner Ridge Correctional Centre, his father said, the family has seen and heard “how scared he is every day.”

“We are scared for his physical and mental safety,” he said of the adult prison system, asking Turner to “choose leniency.”

The couple have access to psychological supports through employment benefits, which they would put in his place as soon as the man is “home with us where he belongs,” the father said.

They will support him in pursuing post-secondary education, which the man is currently working on from behind bars, his father said.

His step-mother, her voice often strained through tears, spoke to the court at length about the man’s character, life and relationship with his birth mother.

“This gives me an opportunity to shed some light on who (the man) actually is, a chance to let you hear from people who’ve had actual life experience with him, and not only based on a story that was pieced together through circumstantial evidence,” she said.

Gould later told the Free Press the “overwhelming” support the man has from family and friends is “unprecedented,” and noted any sentence, whether youth or adult, will result in years in custody and supervision in the community.

“This sentencing hearing exposed the truth about the accused at the time of the offence,” the defence lawyer said.

“He was 16 years old at the time, and there is nothing that justifies the prosecution’s application to sentence him as an adult. Young people are only supposed to be sentenced as adults in exceptional circumstances, and those circumstances do not exist here.”

On Monday, Crown prosecutor Erika Dolcetti argued the man should be given an adult sentence of life in prison, with no eligibility for parole for seven years.

Dolcetti said the man showed adult sophistication in plotting the murder, creating an alibi for himself and quickly directing police to one of his mother’s co-workers as the potential killer.

Family members and family friends provided court with nearly 50 letters of support.

However, two maternal aunts don’t support him, Dolcetti said Monday, and the man purposely did not disclose their existence to a probation officer who wanted to speak to family members for a court-ordered pre-sentence report.

Turner reserved her sentencing decision until early January.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera