Youth Convicted In Fatal Stabbing
Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 12:52
An 18-year-old youth will spend the next nine months in custody, for his role in the manslaughter death of a Wollaston Lake teenager.
The youth, who can’t be identified, hung his head and wept as the sentence was handed down today at Prince Albert Court of Queen’s Bench.
The judge outlined how the convicted youth and five other teens beat and fatally stabbed 18-year-old Dean Josie in September 2007.
The incident happened in the early morning hours outside Carlton High School.
The judge described how 40 to 50 young teenagers, who were drinking, sat and watched the attack occur without trying to intervene.
The teens apparently descended on Josie after he beat one of them in a fight.
In the end, the judge gave the youth credit for 10-and-a-half months time served, and ordered him to spend the next nine months in custody, with a further four-and-a-half months of community supervision after that.
He also must participate in programming to assist in his return to society.
Speaking outside the courthouse, Crown prosecutor John Morrall says the case is a sad comment on society.
“Why are there 40 to 50 14- and 15-year-old people out at 3 a.m., drinking, with no parental supervision and no curfew? It’s fairly shocking that that sort of thing can happen,” Morrall says.
The judge said the family of Dean Josie had been too distraught to enter a victim impact statement into the case.
Morrall says it’s understandable why they weren’t present for the sentencing.
“It’s very difficult, obviously, when someone is killed, and they’ve lost that person forever, and you have people getting two years here, one year over here, and then they’re out and about again, and I think that’s very difficult for people to deal with.”
Meantime, the defense says they are satisfied with the verdict.
The judge noted the youth has apologized to Josie’s family, and has expressed remorse for the crime.
Four other youth in the matter have also pleaded guilty to manslaughter and been sentenced.
The fifth teenager in the case is still before the courts.