WATCH ABOVE: A curfew has been dropped for the woman who killed her little brother and parents in Medicine Hat nine years ago. Global’s David Boushy reports.
CALGARY – A Medicine Hat woman who was just 12 years old when she helped murder her family will no longer be forced to obey a weekday curfew.
The woman, who can’t be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was convicted along with her then-boyfriend Jeremy Steinke of killing her mother, father and eight-year-old brother in the family’s home in April 2006. She is Canada’s youngest multiple killer.
TIMELINE: Tracking Canada’s youngest multiple murderer
Known only as J.R., the woman is now 21 years old and living in Calgary where she had been enrolled in university.
During a sentencing review in Medicine Hat on Thursday, Justice Scott Brooker agreed to eliminate what remained of J.R.’s Monday to Thursday curfew, now that she has transitioned into fully independent living.
He noted that a previous relaxation of her curfew restrictions, which used to include weekend days as well, had a positive effect on her, and that she’d been significantly remorseful.
“She is doing very well the reports have indicated as you’ve heard in court that her risk levels are at the low end of low,” said defence lawyer Katherin Beyak. “The removal of the curfew from the last date allowed her to have normal social interaction and start having a normal life.
“We will be able to tell and see that the sentence has in fact done what it is supposed to do, which is to reintegrate her to live a real life in the real world.”
J.R. is finishing the last few months of a ten year sentence, which will be completed in May 2016. Her sentence, the maximum for young offenders between 12 and 14-years-old, included four years in a psychiatric institution and 4 1/2 years under conditional supervision in the community.
“I would like to express my gratitude to the court and my team for all the support I’ve received,” she said, when asked if she had anything to add at the end of Thursday’s review.
A final sentencing assessment will be completed before J.R’s sentence wraps up. Until then she must still abide by conditions requiring her to report to a supervisor.
Steinke, who was 23 at the time of the killings, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for 25 years.
– With files from David Boushy and The Canadian Press
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