THEBACHA/FORT SMITH - A teenager avoided jail time after he was sentenced for dangerous driving causing death during a tense and emotional court proceeding in Fort Smith.

In youth court on June 25, the 17-year-old boy, who cannot be identified due to the youth criminal justice act, was handed two years' probation (the first year with a curfew), a five-year driving prohibition and 240 hours of community service. He was also ordered to write a letter of apology to the victim's family.

Keisha Trudel was killed in a motor vehicle accident in Fort Smith, on Nov 23, 2008. - NNSL file photo

The boy had pleaded guilty in April in connection with the Nov. 23, 2008, accident that claimed the life of 16-year-old Keisha Trudel. The victim, who was a passenger in an SUV driven by the suspect, was fatally wounded when the driver lost control on a snowy road.

The Crown had sought nine months' in custody as part of the sentence for the boy, who was 16 at the time of the accident.

Following the sentencing, a visibly upset Sharon Allen - the mother of Trudel - talked briefly with the Crown prosecutor and could be heard complaining about the sentence. She then stormed out of the courthouse in apparent disgust, while flicking what appeared to be a small wad of paper in the direction of the defence table where the boy and his parents were sitting, and quickly left in her vehicle. Allen could not be reached afterwards for comment.

At a June 23 hearing, an emotional Allen told the court how the loss of her daughter had left her family devastated.

"There is an unexplainable gap in our lives now," she said, adding that her daughter has been lost forever.

During the sentencing on June 25, Judge Bernadette Schmaltz said she was satisfied the young man had accepted the seriousness and consequences of his actions, and noted the positive steps he had taken since the accident, including quitting drinking and illicit drugs and seeking counselling.

"I'm not convinced a custodial sentence would contribute to (his) rehabilitation and reintegration," she said.

The judge explained that, under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, she is not to pass a sentence based on general deterrence, which is the principle of setting an example to prevent others from committing a crime, or denunciation, the principle of expressing the community's condemnation.

Instead, a judge has to consider the rehabilitation of a young offender. Schmaltz recognized the death of Trudel has shattered the lives of her family. The judge noted the boy will also have to live with the consequences of his actions for the rest of his life.

"That is perhaps his life sentence in this situation," she said.

The judge said leaving the boy in the community would do more good in preventing such a tragedy from happening in the future.

"No sentence that I impose will seem satisfactory," Schmaltz said.

At the June 23 hearing, the boy and his mother and father apologized to the victim's family. The boy said there are no excuses for the very wrong decisions he made on Nov. 23, adding he lost a very good friend in the accident.

"I hope I can forgive myself," he said.

In expressing his apology, the boy's father said, "It's going to be a burden for both families forever."

The court was presented with an agreed statement of facts at the June 23 hearing.

Crown attorney Janice Walsh called the accident tragic, senseless and wholly avoidable. Walsh herself was emotional while addressing the court.

"There's no way that a human being can't be emotional when it comes to this sort of tragedy," she said following the hearing.

The court was told the RCMP was called to a Fort Smith residence on the evening of Nov. 23.

The officers were told there had been an accident involving an SUV and that a girl had been thrown out a rear passenger window of the vehicle.

RCMP found the victim lying face-down in the vehicle behind the driver's seat.

She had been carried to the vehicle, which had been driven back to the Fort Smith home.

Inside the residence, the police found the boy with his head in his hands, saying, "Shoot me. I deserve to die. I've killed her."

The victim was then rushed to hospital, but it is believed she died instantly from massive head trauma sustained in the accident which occurred on what was described as a bush road on the outskirts of Fort Smith.

The court was told the boy, who had been drinking, lost control of the vehicle on the snow-covered road while driving at about 60 km/h and it slid into a tree.

The driver and two others in the vehicle were uninjured. Later, in a cell at the RCMP detachment, the driver hit his head against the wall and punched himself in the face, until a doctor arrived with medication to calm him down.

According to an RCMP news release at the time of the accident, none of the occupants in the vehicle were wearing seatbelts. Trudel, who was originally from Fort Simpson, was in Fort Smith with her mother, who is studying at Aurora College to become a teacher.