By JAMES STEVENSON
MEDICINE HAT, Alta. (CP) – As Canada’s youngest convicted multiple killer stood weeping in the prisoner’s box, the 12 jurors who found her guilty Monday of murdering her family filed silently past, staring at the ground to avoid her gaze.
The jurors walked out of court in a single line, close enough to touch the 13-year-old girl, after taking little more than three hours to decide her guilt on three counts of first-degree murder in the grisly killings of her mom, dad and eight-year-old brother.
Even her own lawyer, Tim Foster, initially appeared to find it difficult to look at the girl, who was just 12 when the family was slaughtered in their home in the southern Alberta city of Medicine Hat.
But he quickly joined his client in the prisoner’s box to put a comforting arm around her.
Outside of court, Foster said he had no idea how his young client was coping even though she has had continued support from extended family on both sides.
“We’ve been working with our client for the last year and a little bit, and you develop relationships with your client and sometimes people just need a hug.”
In a calculated gamble in the fourth week of the murder trial, Foster had the accused testify in her own defence. She told the court that she was mad at her parents and often talked angrily about killing them and wanting them dead, but never meant any of it.
The defence contended that it was the girl’s much-older boyfriend, 23-year-old Jeremy Steinke, who took matters into his own hands when he showed up that fateful night in April 2006, high on cocaine, revved up by violent movies and armed with two knives.
“In the end, it came down to one thing: did her testimony leave (the jury) with the reasonable doubt?”
“And that was really the only issue in the trial. We basically admitted everything else.”
Earlier in the day, Justice Scott Brooker had given the jury few choices when he delivered their final instructions. They had to find her either guilty of first-or second-degree murder, or innocent altogether. The lesser charge of manslaughter was not an option.
The girl can’t be named under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Outside court, Crown prosecutor Stephanie Cleary said she had not put too much thought into making legal history and had simply focused on the case.
“I truly hope that we have done the right thing here and I think that we have done the right thing by this young person and by the victims,” she said.
“This is the community’s response to this terrible crime and I hope that the verdict gives some comfort to the families of the victims.”
As an offender under 14, the girl faces a maximum sentence of 10 years, with no more than six spent in custody. There is no minimum sentence.
Brooker scheduled the sentencing for Aug. 23 and ordered a pre-sentencing report and psychiatric assessment.
In his charge to the jury, the judge noted that both the Crown and defence agreed that it was Steinke who physically stabbed and slashed the three family members to death.
Steinke has yet to enter a plea, and his trial on the same charges is not expected to start until next year. An adult convicted of first-degree murder faces an automatic life sentence and must serve at least 25 years before becoming eligible for parole.
Cleary argued throughout the trial that the young girl intentionally encouraged and persuaded Steinke to kill her family because they strongly disapproved of her much-older boyfriend.
Cleary also contended that she helped her boyfriend break into the family home by telling him which window was unlocked.
The girl admitted to being upstairs and very near her brother when his throat was slit and even confessed to stabbing him once, but said she did so only under Steinke’s orders.
In Canadian law, an accused can also be found guilty of a crime if they intentionally aided, abetted and counselled another person to commit it.
“Under our law a person may be involved in an illegal act by different ways,” Brooker told the jury.
Brooker also told the jurors that they need not find proof of aiding, abetting and counselling – any one of those acts would warrant a guilty verdict.
“You don’t need to agree on the same basis, but you must all agree the accused is guilty on one basis or another,” Brooker said.
In order to find the girl guilty of first-degree murder, the jury had to be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the attack was planned and deliberate, said the judge.
Some of the relevant evidence that the jury heard over the last four weeks included various “hypothetical conversations” and e-mail chats that the girl had with Steinke musing about how to kill her parents and eight-year-old brother.
There was also a stick-person cartoon found in the Grade 7 student’s school locker that depicted a family of four where the middle-sized figure covers the two larger figures and a small figure with gasoline and smiles as they burn alive. The fourth figure then runs to a vehicle labelled “Jeremy’s truck.”
And there were also prison love letters that the two exchanged after being arrested, including one in which the girl wrote: “If only we ran.”
Timeline in case of 13-year-old girl convicted of murdering her family Some key events leading up to Monday’s conviction of a 13-year-old girl on three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her parents and eight-year-old brother: April 23, 2006: Police receive a call after a young boy sees a body through the window of a Medicine Hat house. They find the bodies of a middle-aged couple and their eight-year-old son and ask for the public’s help in finding the missing 12-year-old daughter.
April 24, 2006: RCMP in Leader, Sask., about two hours away from Medicine Hat, arrest the girl and her boyfriend, 23-year-old Jeremy Steinke. Both are charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
April 25, 2006: Steinke and the girl are returned to Medicine Hat, where they are remanded into custody after appearing in court.
May 1, 2006: The girl is ordered transferred to a Calgary detention facility so she can attend school.
May 4, 2006: Police charge Kacy Lancaster, 19, with being an accessory to murder after the fact. They allege she destroyed evidence, gave a false alibi and drove the two suspects out of the province.
June 28, 2006: Court rules the 12-year-old girl does not have to undergo a psychiatric assessment.
July 13, 2006: Steinke is charged with disobeying a court order after the Crown alleges he contacted somebody he wasn’t supposed to.
July 24, 2006: The girl pleads not guilty and opts for trial by judge alone.
Jan. 16, 2007: The girl applies to be tried by jury instead.
Mar. 1, 2007: The girl waives her preliminary hearing and a trial date of June 4 is set.
Mar. 7, 2007: A 16-year-old girl is charged with being an accessory to murder in the deaths.
Mar. 27, 2007: Steinke’s preliminary hearing begins, but ends in less than a day after lawyers agree the rest of the facts can wait until trial. A date for his trial has not yet been set and he has not entered a plea.
June 4, 2007: The girl’s trial begins.
June 29, 2007: The jury is shown jailhouse letters between the girl and Steinke in which he proposes marriage and she accepts.
July 3-4, 2007: The girl takes the stand in her own defence, arguing that she considered discussions with Steinke about killing her parents to be “hypothetical.” She says she stabbed her brother once, because she was scared of Steinke after he killed her parents, but couldn’t strike the fatal blow.
July 9, 2007: After deliberating for a little more than three hours, a seven-man, five-woman jury finds the girl guilty of first-degree murder on all three counts.
Comments