Skylar Prockner, who pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Hannah Leflar, told an emotional courtroom his version of events during the fatal stabbing.
Prockner testified during a sentencing hearing for the youth who pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of 16-year-old Leflar. The teenager can’t be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Prockner sat shackled in the witness box, wearing a bright orange shirt. He said he and Leflar were in a relationship for eight months.
After they broke up, he asked the youth to keep an eye on Leflar, he said. He wanted to know if she was pursuing another relationship.
“Usually I had eyes around the school that would tell me.”
Day of the killing
Prockner said he and the youth waited outside Leflar’s house for about half an hour. They were lying back in their seats, so they were less visible, he said. They had two knives with them.
Leflar didn’t lock the door when she went inside the house, Prockner said. The two teenagers followed her inside.
Prockner said he wanted the teen to stay in the truck, but he didn’t. He testified that he thought he told the youth to stay at the door.
Prockner choked back tears as he recounted the murder. Leflar saw him and shouted his name, but not loudly enough for anybody outside the house to hear, he said.
She jogged back to her parents’ bedroom, Prockner testified. He walked after her.
She slipped or tripped somehow, he said, and that’s when he caught up with her and started stabbing.
Prockner looked behind him and saw the youth standing in the bedroom, he said. He testified he wasn’t sure if the youth had been crouching or holding Leflar’s legs down.
When Crown prosecutor Lori O’Connor asked how Prockner knew it was over, he said it’s because Leflar stopped moving.
“I just assumed that that meant it was over.”
Sobs could be heard throughout the courtroom during Prockner’s testimony.
Prockner then grabbed Leflar’s phone. He and the youth went back to the truck, and he tossed the knife and the phone on its floorboards, he said.
They went to the youth’s girlfriend’s house, where the youth smashed Leflar’s phone outside.
The youth put the knife used to murder Leflar in his backpack, Prockner said.
Despite wearing gloves, Prockner had badly injured his hand during the stabbing.
They discussed different fake stories to explain his injury, and settled on a hunting accident.
Prockner and the youth ended up at the hospital, where Prockner was given three stitches. They later went and threw the knife in a dumpster, before thinking better of it and retrieving the murder weapon, he said.
The knife was later discarded at an abandoned farmhouse, Prockner said.
Prockner was picked up by police shortly afterwards.
During cross-examination, defence lawyer Greg Wilson asked Prockner: “This is something you decided on your own was going to happen?”
“Yes,” Prockner said.
The youth didn’t have any input into what was going to happen, Prockner said.
“This was all you?” Wilson asked.
“Basically,” Prockner agreed.
The defence also questioned Prockner about his testimony from a preliminary hearing that suggested the youth did not have a knife with him.
Prockner responded that when he looked back at the youth, he saw a knife in his hand. In between the first and last inflicted wounds, the youth presented the knife and put it away, he said.
Prockner was sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 10 years. The Crown is seeking an adult sentence for the youth as well.
“Everything will turn on ultimately the moral culpability of that young person. Whether they swung the knife or shot the gun, it’s a question of their moral blameworthiness,” Crown Prosecutor Chris White said. “Given his role, the fact that he didn’t swing the knife is almost irrelevant. It’s still high by whatever metric you measure it.”
“There’s certainly evidence that he had a hand in at least attempting to lure Hannah, make sure that she’s alone,” White added. “The evidence in the agreed statement of facts also speaks of disposal of evidence.”
White said he believed the Leflar family was looking at this sentencing hearing as the final chapter.
“Mr. Prockner’s was the penultimate. This is the final chapter,” he said.
“Having to relive Hannah’s last days through the eyes of the person who killed her, I can’t imagine how horrible that is to hear,” White said.
Court will resume at 2 p.m. on Tuesday.