EDMONTON – A young offender on Friday entered surprise guilty pleas to drug trafficking charges, half way through his trial for selling ecstasy to two girls who died after taking the drugs.
The 17-year-old youth, who cannot be named under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, had previously pleaded not guilty to selling drugs to several teens from the Paul Band First Nation.
The change of pleas means the case will be back in court on Nov. 19 for sentencing.
Families for the two teens who died, Trinity Bird, 15, and Leah House, 14, were not in court on Friday.
During the trial, court heard the teens became violently ill after each ingesting several ecstasy pills at a wedding celebration on the First Nation on March 22, 2009. They both died days later.
Another Paul Band teen testified during the trial that she had bought ecstasy from the accused prior to the wedding celebration.
The grandmother of Trinity Bird also testified her granddaughter had told her before she died that she had got ecstasy from the accused.
Youth Court Judge Justina Filice agreed with Crown and defence lawyers there was no evidence presented during the trial that the youth had sold the fatal ecstasy pills to Leah House.
There was evidence he sold the drugs to three other teens.
The youth pleaded guilty to three counts of trafficking ecstasy and one count of breaching a recognizance order.
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