Families weep as killer gets life
Young offender sentenced as an adult in brutal murder of Charlotte Lafferty in Fort Good Hope
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Monday, April 24, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Raw emotions were laid bare in a Yellowknife courtroom last week as family of murder victim Charlotte Lafferty listened to a judge's decision that handed her killer a life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 years.
Members of the Lafferty family from Fort Good Hope hug outside the Yellowknife courthouse on April 20 minutes after the man convicted of killing Charlotte Lafferty in 2014 was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years. The offender, who was a month shy of his 18th birthday when he killed Lafferty, was sentenced as an adult by NWT Supreme Court judge Louis Charbonneau. A temporary publication ban forbids media from reporting his name. - John McFadden/NNSL photo
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The offender was a month shy of his 18th birthday when he sexually assaulted and beat to death the 23-year-old mother of three outside a senior's complex in Fort Good Hope on March 22, 2104. A temporary publication ban forbids media from naming the culprit.
Families of the victim and the offender sobbed in the courtroom as NWT Supreme Court judge Louise Charbonneau handed down her sentence for first-degree murder. Minutes later, after court adjourned, Lafferty's mother and the mother of her killer hugged and sobbed just outside the courtroom as family members and friends from both sides cried and watched them embrace.
Several family members and friends of both Lafferty and the offender made the trip down from Fort Good Hope for the April 20 sentencing hearing.
Charbonneau had the option of sentencing the offender as a youth but she told the court the crime demanded a stiff sentence.
"A youth sentence would not hold him accountable for his actions," said the judge. "It would not reflect the seriousness of his crime."
The maximum sentence the 21 year old could have received if sentenced as a youth was six years in jail and four years of custody in the community - essentially house arrest.
Charbonneau talked about how painful Lafferty's murder has been for her family and the entire community.
"This was a particularly violent, prolonged beating with a weapon with a high level of contemptuousness, degrading behaviour," Charbonneau told the a hushed court. "RCMP said the crime scene was indescribable, like a scene from a horror movie."
A Yellowknife jury found the man guilty in February 2016 after six hours of deliberation following a two-week trial.
The offender, wearing a purple dress shirt, dress pants and sock feet, showed no emotion after Charbonneau handed down her sentence.
His lawyer Charles Davison had asked the judge for a maximum youth sentence.
Outside court, Davison told News/North his client had informed him that he wants to appeal both the sentence and the guilty verdict. The punishment was handed down after a week-long sentencing hearing held in Yellowknife in January.
Charbonneau granted the lawyer's request for a temporary publication ban on his client's name, even though publication bans on naming young offenders are usually lifted after being sentenced as adults.
Horrific murder
The murder was horrific. During the trial court heard Lafferty was sexually assaulted with a stick which was also used to beat her.
Charbonneau ordered the man be added to Canada's sex offender registry for the rest of his life and banned him from possessing a firearm for 10 years after his release from custody.
Crown prosecutor Annie Piche told News/North after the sentencing that it is not her place to say whether she is pleased with the judge's decision to sentence the killer as an adult.
"That's what the Crown was asking for," Piche said. "The sentence was necessary to hold this young person accountable for the crime he has committed. He had the maturity of an adult at the time of the offence."
Piche added she does not oppose the temporary publication ban on the man's name but added she would oppose a long-term publication ban.
Following the sentencing, a Lafferty family member who did not want to be identified, said she does not think a 10-year minimum sentence is long enough.
"I don't think so but thank God justice prevailed for her and hopefully he'll start paying for what he has taken from our family," she said. "I don't think he will ever be welcomed back in Fort Good Hope. Charlotte had a lot of friends. Our family is big. I don't think he could ever be forgiven."
The next court phase will come on May 1 when Charbonneau will set a date for a "placement hearing."
The outcome of the hearing will decide whether the man can serve his time at the North Slave Correctional Complex or be sent to a southern penitentiary to serve his sentence.
