A Fort Macleod teenager who murdered his mother with an axe and celebrated by drinking alcohol was spared an adult sentence in favour of intensive psychotherapy for youths.
The teen, who turns 19 this month, was 17 when he attacked his 34-year-old single mother. Neither can be named to protect the teen’s identity under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The teen pleaded guilty to second-degree murder charges for the 2009 killing.
The Crown had earlier argued for an adult sentence, but Justice Eric Peterson agreed to a special intensive rehabilitative custody and supervision order for young offenders in Lethbridge provincial court Tuesday.
The teen was said to suffer from depression, substance abuse and obsessive compulsive disorder.
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He had a volatile relationship with his mother before the slaying, court was told. When police were called to the home in May 2009, they found the teen visiting with a friend while his mother was dead.
The youth sentence is more appropriate for the teen, because he was operating at the level of a 12-year-old rather than a 17-year-old, defence lawyer Steve Virk said.
“How do you put someone like that in an adult facility? He’d be eaten alive,” said Virk.
The teen has been held at the Calgary Young Offender Centre for the past 16 months.
“It’s been pretty tough emotionally for him. He sort of blanked out when everything happened.”
The teen was sentenced Tuesday to the maximum of four years in secure custody at Alberta Hospital and three years of conditional supervision to follow.
The sentence spared the teen upwards of 25 years in jail.
The teen is estranged from his single mother’s relatives, but his father appeared in court to support him.
“It’s a tragic situation. It’s one of those things where nobody wins,” said Virk.
The murder happened a week before Mother’s Day in May 2009, and shook the southern Alberta town of 3,000 residents, about 170 kilometres south of Calgary.
szickefoose@theherald.canwest.com
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