The defence lawyer for the La Loche school shooter has asked a judge to recommend his client serve his adult sentence in a psychiatric facility Friday.
Last month, judge Janet McIvor stated the gunman, who was weeks shy of his eighteenth birthday when he opened fire, will be sentenced as an adult.
“We will be will be asking, your honour, that when we reach the point that you impose sentence that you consider making the recommendation that he be considered for placement at the Regional Psychiatric Centre,” defence lawyer Aaron Fox told the judge.
His client, who cannot be named due to a publication ban, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder for the killings of teacher Adam Wood, teacher’s aide Marie Janvier and brothers Dayne and Drayden Fontaine.
The shooter has also pleaded guilty to seven counts of attempted murder for the people who were injured, but survived his rampage through the halls of La Loche’s Dene high school in January 2016.
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While the judge cannot choose the location for the now 20-year-old’s sentence, she can make a recommendation.
A court-ordered placement report will examine possible locations for the sentence, including the psychiatric centre requested by his lawyer.
In the interim, the judge granted the shooter’s request to be moved from a youth custody facility in Saskatoon to an adult correctional centre in Prince Albert.
“He’s certainly anxious to move on to the next step and I think everybody is,” Fox said.
The shooter is expected to be sentenced in Meadow Lake on May 8.
On Friday, McIvor reiterated that she was “dismayed” to learn members of the media were locked out of the courthouse in La Loche as she delivered her decision to sentence the shooter as an adult.
Seating in the small northern courthouse was taken up entirely by community members and the families of victims.
“For me, as a judge of the provincial court, and I think that I can speak for every judge not only in this province, but in this country, that we take very seriously the open court principal,” McIvor said.
Who locked the courthouse remains unknown, though one reporter was allowed in after one of the building’s occupants left. The judge also made arrangements for media to access audio recordings of her decision after the fact.
With an adult sentence, the gunman faces life in prison with no parole eligibility for at least 10 years.
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