The 16-year-old suspect in the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old boy in Laval’s Fabreville neighbourhood on Jan. 1 appeared before Laval’s youth court on Friday.
The teen pleaded not guilty to charges of second degree murder, a count of assault with a weapon and a count of possessing a weapon for dangerous purposes.
“All of this happened within not even 30 seconds,” said defence lawyer Normand Haché.
“Thirty seconds that took the life of a best friend and will change the lives of those kids and all those families.”
The 16-year-old allegedly stabbed the boy at Marc-Aurèle-Fortin Park at 8:00 p.m. on New Year’s Day, according to Laval police.
The defence lawyer said it was the tragic result of a conflict between two friends.
“Unfortunately, here we have something that should’ve never happened and it’s surprising that even the parents were not aware that there was a conflict going on,” said Haché.
The series of events that led to the death of the 15-year-old are still unclear.
“Its very difficult to understand what happened. They were best friends, they were themselves calling each other best friends.,” Haché told reporters.
“How could this degenerate and become so oddly violent?”
According to the Crown prosecutor for Laval’s youth court, there are no plans to try the suspect as an adult.
“The Crown would have to ask the court for the youth to be sentenced as an adult and it’s not the case right now,” said Crown prosecutor Marie-Ève Vautier.
The accused is expected to be back in court on Jan. 9.
“It will take a few days just to be able to go through all of the documentation, all the videos we’ve received, ” said Haché.
“We received five CDs of proof and we hope by Jan. 9 we’ll know more about it and we will take a position as to what kind of defence that will be presented, if any.”
The defendant will remain in the custody of Quebec’s youth protection services until his court date.
“There’s going to be a bail hearing to see if the accused is going to remain detained throughout the proceedings or not,” Vautier said.
Laval police are asking possible witnesses to call the Info-Crime line at 450-662-INFO.
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