Murderer awaits sentence
Crown wants youth sentenced as adult for Charlotte Lafferty's killing
Kirsten Fenn
Northern News Services
Monday, January 16, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A supreme court justice will wait until April to rule whether a Fort Good Hope youth who sexually assaulted and beat a young mother unrecognizable more than two years ago should be sentenced as an adult for her murder.
The now 20-year-old man appeared in Yellowknife Supreme Court for a week-long sentencing hearing last Monday.
His name is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act as he was 17 at the time he committed the crime.
A jury found him guilty last February of first-degree murder for killing 23-year-old Charlotte Lafferty on March 22, 2014 and leaving her body in the snow outside an elder's home in Fort Good Hope.
Crown attorney Annie Piche this week called three witnesses to give evidence that would help Supreme Court Justice Louise Charbonneau make her sentencing decision.
In choosing whether to sentence the man as an adult, the judge must weigh his moral blameworthiness and accountability.
If sentenced as an adult, the man faces life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 10 years.
Youth forensic psychiatrist Dr. Mahnoor Sultana of Edmonton's Alberta Hospital was the first to testify last week, concluding the man poses a significant risk of re-offending.
On Monday she explained the results of a report produced at the hospital after the accused spent three weeks there under assessment.
She diagnosed him with "borderline intellectual abilities," as he has an IQ of about 73 or 74 - lower than 96 per cent of Canadians.
He also showed signs of substance abuse that included drinking to the point of blackout, something the accused on occasion agreed was problematic, but not always, Sultana said.
Sultana also concluded the young man showed low empathy toward the victim.
When asked about how the victim's family must feel, he minimized his actions and turned the conversation back to himself, she said.
At the same time, the assessment showed the man displayed logical thinking abilities and did not display emotional immaturity, she said.
"At no point did we think he struggled with right and wrong," Sultana said.
On Thursday, Piche urged justice Charbonneau to carefully consider the man's lack of empathy when deciding whether to sentence him as an adult, something she called "concerning."
But the man's defence lawyer, Charles Davison, argued his client presented signs of immaturity at the time of Lafferty's murder and was not making decisions as an adult.
Davison said the man's lack of empathy for the victim and her family suggests a lack of immaturity, as young offenders often tend to think of their wrongdoing in terms of themselves.
He also told the judge during his submissions that the man had been sexually abused and witnessed domestic violence while growing up, trauma that should account for diminished accountability in the murder.
About two years before Lafferty's murder, the man's sister died, after which point he began using alcohol more frequently, Davison said.
Still, he added, "there is no downplaying the seriousness of the incident."
Davison asked the judge to deliver the maximum youth sentence.
That would mean six years imprisonment for the accused on top of the three years he has already spent in remand.
The accused could spend another four years back in the community after that, under supervision, if he makes progress while in custody.
Davison added that a youth sentence would give the man a better chance of serving his time in the North, in a culturally appropriate setting that is closer to his family.
Charbonneau adjourned the matter until April 20 for her decision.
The matter was originally set for March 21, but was changed as that is the day before the third anniversary of Lafferty's death.
