For Steinke, there is an automatic life sentence for a first-degree murder conviction. As well, there can be no eligibility for parole for twenty-five years (“Teen Gets Maximum Sentence for Medicine Hat Killings” 2007; “Steinke Found Guilty of First-Degree Murder” 2008).
Regina Teen Sentenced as an Adult
Larry Moser tried to help a Regina convenience store clerk who was fighting with a group of teens outside the store over a bag of sunflower seeds on Boxing Day, 2006. A sixteen-year-old, who cannot be named because of the YCJA, took part in the fight. He had a knife and stabbed Moser with it. Moser died from the wound.
The youth was tried and convicted of second-degree murder on November 28, 2008. The judge ordered the youth to serve a life sentence within the meaning of the YCJA. Practically, this means that the youth may not be considered for parole for seven years. The judge said the youth exhibited anti-social criminal behaviour and only the sentence imposed with its state-control would protect the public. At the time of trial and sentencing, the youth was eighteen (“Regina Teen Sentenced as Adult in Good Samaritan Killing” 2008).
Gunfight in Toronto
Jane Creba, age fifteen, was shot to death on December 26, 2005. She was an innocent bystander, part of a crowd of Boxing Day shoppers in downtown Toronto. She was the victim of a gunfight between two groups, consisting in part of youths. The stray bullet that caused her death struck her in the back. Four men and two women were wounded in the crossfire.
Two youths and seven adult suspects were arrested, including J.S.R., who was seventeen at the time of the shooting. (J.S.R. was then six weeks from his eighteenth birthday — and, thus, nearly an adult. By the conclusion of trial and before sentencing, he was twenty-one.) At the scene of the gunfight, police found seven shell casings fired from the gun that killed Creba. J.S.R. was not charged with firing the pistol that killed Creba, but he was part of the gangs in conflict.
J.S.R. was arrested only forty minutes after the shooting. Police found a pistol in his possession that had been discharged and was later found responsible for wounding two bystanders (though not Creba). J.S.R., from the time of his arrest, said that the weapon police found had been handed to him after the shooting by the actual gunman, who J.S.R. named. It appeared that J.S.R. had been “cooperative” in the police investigation.
J.S.R. was the first of the nine arrested to go to trial. On December 7, 2008, the jury returned verdicts of guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Creba, as well as five weapons charges and two of six counts of aggravated assault. The courtroom was silent when the jury foreperson rose to announce the verdict. J.S.R. showed no emotion, other than his eyes initially fluttering. The trials of the remaining defendants were to take place later.
On December 11, 2008, the Crown stated that it wanted an adult sentence for J.S.R. If he were sentenced as an adult, he would be given life in prison with no eligibility for parole for seven years for the second-degree murder conviction. If J.S.R. were sentenced as a youth, he would receive a sentence of seven years, no more than four of which would normally be served in custody.
In the course of J.S.R.’s trial, the judge reduced the charge from second-degree murder to manslaughter. However, on appeal to the Ontario Court of Appeal, the more serious charge was reinstated. The appellate court ruled that a jury could find that J.S.R. could have participated in a “frenzied shootout.” He could have “substantially contributed” to Creba’s death by engaging in a gunfight. The reasoning seemed to be that if J.S.R. had not fired the gun, then the gun that had been fired and killed Creba likely would not have been fired.
Shortly before the gunfight, video cameras spotted J.S.R. as part of an aggressive group of young men moving about the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto, close to where the gunfight took place. They had already “committed at least two … crimes of violence in full public view.” The attacks were edited out of the tapes shown to the jurors in the J.S.R. trial. J.S.R. already had been subject to a court order prohibiting him from even being on Yonge Street — the street, as it turned out, on which Creba had been shot.
J.S.R.’s sentencing was handed down by Ontario Justice Ian Nordheimer on April 24, 2009. J.S.R. was then twenty-one. It took Justice Nordheimer about an hour to read his sentencing judgment. Within the framework of the YCJA, Justice Nordheimer sentenced J.S.R. as an adult. In doing this, the judge stripped away J.S.R.’s anonymity. His identity was revealed to the public: Jorell Simpson-Rowe. His record of conviction was archived as open to the public.
While the YCJA rules out “denunciation” as an element of sentencing a youth, Justice Nordheimer said meaningful penalties are necessary in “society’s interests.” He noted what pre-sentence reports referred to as Simpson-Rowe’s hellish upbringing. Still, said the judge, Simpson-Rowe was capable of distinguishing right from wrong. The judge said:
In essence, as found by the jury, Mr. Simpson-Rowe opened fire with a semi-automatic pistol handgun on a crowded downtown street full of innocent citizens who were simply enjoying one of the rituals of the holiday season — Boxing Day sales.
The residents of this city are entitled to expect, indeed, they are entitled to insist, that they be able to go about such ordinary activities in relative safety and not be faced with the type of inexcusable violence that was unleashed by Mr. Simpson-Rowe and his associates.
The effect of Justice Nordheimer’s sentence on Simpson-Rowe is that he will serve another three years and eight months in prison. He will be twenty-four when eligible for parole. (This may not be the end of the story. Lawyers for Simpson-Rowe announced that they will appeal the verdict — a matter that may take more than a few years.) (Appleby 2009b; Blatchford 2008; “Crown Seeks Adult Penalty in Creba Case” 2008; DiManno 2009; “Man, 20, Guilty of 2nd-Degree Murder in Jane Creba Shooting” 2008.)
CHALLENGE QUESTION
What Do Current Statistics Prove?
Q: On the same day as the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its decision in The Queen v. D.B., Statistics Canada issued a report on youth crime in 2006. The report stated that youth crime in homicides had reached a historic high of fifty-four, an increase of 3 percent over 2005. Aside from an increase in youth homicides, what, if anything, is reflected in the quoted statistic? Does it indicate an increased level of crimes of violence by the young?
This question was suggested in a Globe and Mail article by Timothy Appleby (Appleby 2008a). He briefly cited the Court’s holding in The Queen v. D.B., then reported the statistic quoted above.
Appleby asked for, received, and set out the following comments from experts — both police officers and youth advocates.
Constable Scott Mills, Toronto’s Crime Stoppers officer for schools, stated, “I deal with kids every day and they have told me personally, directly, many times: ‘I’ll [commit the crime] because the consequences are minimal.…’ So there has to be a deterrent, and as a street cop I can tell you this: I don’t think the legislators or the judges were expecting fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds to be doing armed robberies and murders on the level they are today.”
Bernard Richard, a New Brunswick provincial advocate for children and youth, stated, “The research [of Statistics Canada and that which the Supreme Court cited in The Queen v. D.B.] is pretty solid — that as much as possible we should divert youth away from custodial sentences.… In the five years since the YCJA replaced the Young Offenders Act, the number of juveniles behind bars has dropped by a third.”
The Statistics Canada report was taken from nationwide police reports. The data showed that youth crime was down 6 percent from a decade earlier, and down 25 percent from a 1991 peak. The youth crime rate was 6,885 for every 100,000 young people. Homicides committed by the young represented .05 percent of youth crimes. Still, the fifty-four homicides reached their highest peak since such data was first collected in 1961. The fifty-four killings involved seventy-two boys and twelve girls. Knives were used in 44 percent of the killings and firearms in 17 percent.