Hannah Leflar’s killer apologizes in final day of sentencing hearing

For the first time throughout two weeks of proceedings, the courtroom heard from Hannah Leflar’s killer, as he apologized for his crime.

On Tuesday, the youth – who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act – read aloud his apology letter, telling the courtroom “I can’t apologize enough for what I’ve done.”

The youth goes on to say he regrets his actions and it will never happen again.

“No matter how many times I say I’m sorry or I regret it, it won’t ever fill that space I left you with,” he said.

“What I can do is reassure that I will never let this happen again, not by me, not by anyone else, not when I’m around to stop it.”

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The youth – now 19 years old – said he wished he “could’ve done right the first time” but he wasn’t “in a stable state of mind”.

“I want to reassure you that I will complete any and all programming intended for me, to better myself and help me get the help I so desperately needed before this happened,” he told the courtroom.

The youth said he will now live his life “doing good for Hannah” because of what he did to her, adding “everyone makes mistakes” and ‘we have to right those wrongs.”

At one point, he looked at Hannah’s mother, Janet Leflar, and asked for forgiveness.

“I know you may never forgive me for what I’ve done but I’ll never stop asking God for forgiveness,” he told her. Janet shook her head.

The court also heard the youth found spiritual guidance while on remand.

“I like to think that I’m a man of peaceful intentions,” he said.

Closing Arguments

The final day of the sentencing hearing also heard submissions from the crown and the defence – both arguing their case to Justice Jennifer Pritchard.

Crown prosecutor Chris White argued a youth sentence does not hold the teen accountable for his “sophisticated” and “planned murder”.

White added the youth “lacks empathy, compassion and ability to feel remorse”, and he is only concerned with his own state of affairs.

When asked what he thought of the youth’s apology, White replied “not much”.

“A day late and a dollar short as far as I’m concerned. I mean it’s certainly contradicted just about everything we thought we knew about him. I didn’t take anything from it at all,” he said.

“His level of culpability is off the charts no matter what metric you use to measure it.”

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Outside the courtroom, Janet Leflar said she’s glad these proceedings are over.

“It’s been really difficult the last couple of years, every time we come back to court the scab gets ripped off again. How do we grieve? I need to grieve for my daughter,” she said.

She also said she would never forgive the youth for murdering her child, and did not believe his apology.

“There was no actual apology, it was all about him and how he feels and he’ll be the superhero and fight crime now,” she said.

“If he gets anything less than an adult sentence, that is not justice for our daughter, and not justice for us. It gives message that if you’re under 18 you can get away with murder.”

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Janet also said her daughter Hannah was a very sensible, and funny girl.

“She was funny and smart and wonderful. She just had such a great amount of common sense, it really astounded me that someone that was 16-years-old to have,” she said.

The defence asked Justice Jennifer Pritchard to “consider his immaturity” – that the youth was only 16 years old at the time of the killing.

The teen’s lawyer Corinne Maeder argued the youth fell into a deep depression and “irrationally concluded” his only way out of depression was for Leflar to die.

Maeder also argued the youth has a positive outlook and a willingness to “work on areas of his life” and he did show interest in treatment options.

A decision on whether the youth will be sentenced as an adult has been put over until July 5^th.

An adult sentence carries an automatic life sentence of 25 years, with no chance of parole for ten years.