Canada’s Youngest Multiple Killer Done With Co-Accused Boyfriend, Says Lawyer

By James Stevenson, THE CANADIAN PRESS

MEDICINE HAT, Alta. – The young southern Alberta girl who helped slaughter her entire family in order to be with a boyfriend nearly twice her age is now “disgusted” at the thought of him and wants no further contact, says her lawyer.

The girl, who turned 14 in prison over the weekend, faced a sentencing hearing Monday after being found guilty in July on three counts of first-degree murder for the slashing and stabbing deaths of her mother, father and little brother.

Her lawyer, Tim Foster, told the court that his client appears to be doing well in prison and has distanced herself from 24-year-old Jeremy Steinke, who is also behind bars facing the same three murder charges.

“With therapy and time to reflect, my client has drastically changed her view of Mr. Steinke,” Foster said outside the courthouse in Medicine Hat, Alta.

Just 18 months ago, the girl and Steinke were arrested in the back of a pickup truck in Leader, Sask. as police combed her blood-soaked house in suburban Medicine Hat.

In the following days, the two exchanged a series of crudely written prison-house love letters full of spelling mistakes that culminated in Steinke asking for her hand in marriage. The girl, now Canada’s youngest convicted multiple killer, said yes.

“Ahahaha! I never thought I’d find myself hystericaly (sic) laughing in a holding cell in these kinds of circumstances,” wrote the girl. “But still! ahaha you make me so happy! Yes! Yes! I will, I would love to.”

Much has changed since April 2006.

Steinke’s criminal proceedings slowly grind on as he attempts to get his murder trial moved away from Medicine Hat.

And the girl will likely spend her next few years between the young offenders centre in Calgary and a forensic psychiatric hospital in Edmonton.

On Monday, both Crown and defence lawyers agreed that she should be given a rarely used Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision sentence.

The program, complete with an extra $100,000 yearly in federal funding per young offender for additional treatment and therapy, would focus on dealing with her various personality disorders that were identified in psychiatric and pre-sentencing reports.

But the lawyers disagreed over how long she should ultimately be incarcerated.

Prosecutor Stephanie Cleary said the reports show the girl has both oppositional defiance disorder and conduct disorder. And a treatment plan calls for her to spend six years in custody – the maximum allowed by the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

“It’s clear that this is a young person who’s seriously disturbed and faces significant challenges,” Cleary told Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Scott Brooker.

“The young person does not recognize that she has committed a crime, nor does she have any insight into her condition.”

Defence counsel said the girl should be incarcerated for only about three years, with the bulk of that being at the psychiatric hospital and not jail. And she should be given 1.5 times credit for the 18 months she’s already served, rather than the straight one-for-one credit that the Crown advocated.

Brooker is set to deliver the young girl’s sentence on Nov. 8 in Medicine Hat.

Foster said the primary focus in sentencing young people should be finding the least restrictive alternative available.

“We should not be putting people in custody just because we think maybe it might be beneficial to them in the end,” he said.

“My approach is I look at it from what is required in order to rehabilitate and reintegrate this young person? And the experts tell us it’s going to take three years and I can live with that and my client can live with that.”

The girl showed little emotion as she entered the courtroom Monday and took her position in the prisoner’s box. Clad in a loose pink sweater and black dress pants, her long brown hair nearly all the way down her back, she was barely recognizable from her Internet photos posted around the time of the killings that showed a small girl posing seductively in tight clothes and heavy black makeup.

Foster also told the court that if his client were quickly admitted to the in-patient program at the Alberta Hospital Edmonton’s forensic unit, then “it’s very unlikely” she would appeal her conviction.

During her trial, the girl’s defence never mentioned mental issues. Instead, her lawyer told the jury she was just a rebellious pre-teen who didn’t really mean any of the angry outbursts about wanting her parents dead.

The Crown argued that the girl intentionally encouraged and persuaded her boyfriend to break into the house and kill her family because her parents wanted to break up the relationship.

The girl confessed on the witness stand to trying to choke her eight-year-old brother and stabbing him once.

Foster told court Monday that his client must also be seen as a victim who will be deprived of the company of her mom, dad and brother for the rest of her life.

Cleary said it was true that the girl would be without the support of her family.

“But the fact of the matter is she’ll live her life. And her eight-year-old brother will not.”