Where will killer Keenan McNeely serve time?
Man who murdered Charlotte Lafferty wants to be jailed near his family in the North
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Monday, July 17, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
An unprecedented hearing got underway in Supreme Court in Yellowknife on July 11 to decide whether the man convicted this year of murdering Charlotte Lafferty in Fort Good Hope in 2014 will be sent south to a federal institution to serve his sentence.
Keenan McNeely, 21, was a month shy of his 18th birthday when he brutally murdered and sexually assaulted the 23-year-old Lafferty, a mother of three.
He was sentenced as an adult by Supreme Court judge Louise Charbonneau to life in jail with no chance of parole for 10 years after she convicted him of first-degree murder.
Even though he was sentenced as an adult, McNeely avoided the 25-year automatic sentence for first degree murder because he was a minor when he committed the crime.
It is Charbonneau who is tasked with deciding whether McNeely should be sent to a federal penitentiary to serve out his sentence.
Court heard it is the first time in the NWT that a placement hearing has been held for a murderer who was under 18 at the time of his offence.
McNeely, dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, was allowed to leave the prisoner's box and sit beside his lawyer Charles Davison for the hearing.
McNeely's father was the lone family member in attendance for the proceedings.
Davison was successful in getting the hearing adjourned until Aug. 29. Charbonneau granted the adjournment so that a security assessment of McNeely can be completed by Corrections Canada.
It is believed that McNeely wants to serve his time in the North, to be closer to his family.
Davison did not commit to whether he wants McNeely to serve his sentence in the North - likely at the North Slave Correctional Centre - but he made it clear he does not want McNeely sent to the federal maximum security Edmonton Institution.
Davison quoted from recent news articles about the facility.
"It's described as a Lord of the Flies type atmosphere with prison gangs," Davison told the judge.
"Inmates are vulnerable to attacks by other inmates.
Staff are vulnerable inmate attacks."
Court heard that convicted murderers usually serve the first two years of their sentence at a maximum security institution.
Davison said that the medium, to minimum security Bowden Institution near Red Deer, Alta., makes more sense for McNeely should he be transferred to the federal penal system.
McNeely has been held in custody at NSCC since his arrest in the winter of 2014.
Charbonneau reluctantly granted the adjournment noting that the case has dragged on for more than three years.
But she said the more information she has before making her decision the better, referring to the pending security assessment.
Crown prosecutor Annie Piche opposed the adjournment.
"We need closure in this case for everyone involved, including the victim's family," Piche told the judge.
Piche added that it is her understanding that Charbonneau can not decide which actual institution McNeely will serve his time, only whether it will be at a federal, territorial or a youth facility.
Piche added that a placement report by the NWT Corrections Service recommended that McNeely be sent south to serve his time at a federal institution. Piche said she agrees with that recommendation.
