More details about the youth who stood by and watched as his friend Skylar Prockner murdered Hannah Leflar were revealed in court on Tuesday.
Psychologist Danielle DeSorcy spent twelve hours interviewing the teen, who can’t be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
The youth described the murder and Leflar’s last breaths to the psychologist.
DeSorcy said he was very flat while telling the story.
“It’s almost like he was disconnected from it,” she said.
Court also discussed the text messages the youth sent to his friends telling of the murder.
When DeSorcy heard about them in court, she said he appeared proud, even excited.
The psychologist characterized the youth as very “malleable” – a people pleaser. She called the teen “submissive.”
DeSorcy said the youth’s motive for his part in the murder wasn’t clear.
The way he described it to her, it appeared more spontaneous, she said, and he appeared to be taken off-guard.
When asked why he didn’t try to intervene, the youth told DeSorcy his morals weren’t there that day. The psychologist said he told her he was also worried Skylar Prockner would turn on him.
DeSorcy said the youth had to fend for himself and his brother from a young age. His mother was in and out of his life, and he was also abused as a child, she said.
The youth told DeSorcy he liked school, and it appeared that he was successful in his job.
He had never been in trouble with the law before.
“Depending on snapshots in his life, there was a time when he seemed to have done fairly well in school and fit in and had positive peer associations,” Crown prosecutor Chris White said. “That appears to have changed as he got a little bit older.”
There were several things the youth didn’t mention in their interviews that she found out in court documents later, DeSorcy said. For example, when the stabbing took place, he told her he was down the hallway, not in the bedroom.
DeSorcy said she had felt remorse from the youth.
The teen sat motionless and expressionless throughout most of the testimony.
Court will resume again on Wednesday. A community youth worker and Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision program worker are expected to take the stand.
Prockner has already been sentenced as an adult to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for ten years. He’s appealing his sentence.