'I'm trying hard to change my life,' says teen who killed Brandy Vittrekwa
Youth's sentencing hearing taking place in Whitehorse this week
"Hope is not lost" for a teenage boy who admitted to beating a 17-year-old Whitehorse girl and leaving her in the snow to die, testified a psychologist Tuesday.
The teen, who was 15 at the time of the crime in December 2014, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Brandy Vittrekwa's death. His sentencing hearing is taking place in Yukon Territorial Court this week. He cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
He said he was "extremely wasted" on alcohol and drugs when he beat Vittrekwa unconscious. He told investigators he remembers knocking her out, dragging her off the trail, and wondering while he stumbled home that night whether she might die.
At the time, he was already serving a community sentence for an equally violent assault.
Dr. Anne Pleydon, a psychologist testifying at the teen's sentencing hearing, says he needs extensive treatment and counselling to reverse the chaotic, dysfunctional home life that's made him such an angry young man.
"If released tomorrow, there is a very high risk of violent criminal behaviour," she said.
"He needs to be managed."
'I feel horrible for what I did to Brandy'
The maximum sentence available for a youth who has pleaded guilty to manslaughter is three years. Still, Pleydon says "hope is not lost" that with one and a half years in youth custody, followed by the same amount of time in therapy and programming, he could be rehabilitated for full reintegration.
Crown prosecutors argue the boy's criminal past and the callous nature of the assault for which he has pleaded guilty to manslaughter deserves an adult sentence. Typically it would be somewhere in the four- to six-year range.
Asked about an extended adult sentence, Pleydon told the court "research is definitive" showing recividism is much higher among youths who have been elevated to the adult level at sentencing.
Federal programs for youth offenders are available in Saskatchewan and British Columbia. In either case, court was told the boy's family would have to move to the jurisdiction to become eligible for programming.
Asked if he had anything to say, the boy stood in his dark suit jacket and read a written apology.
"I feel horrible for what I did to Brandy," he said. "I'm trying hard to change my life."
Yukon Judge Peter Chisholm has set sentencing for June 16.