Laval teen gets three-year sentence for killing her former close friend

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The Laval teenager who killed his close friend more than two years ago after arguing for days over text messages received a three-year sentence, including 26 months in detention.

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High Court Judge Catherine Perreault handed down the sentence at the Laval courthouse on Monday after finding the young man guilty of involuntary manslaughter, armed robbery and carrying a weapon with a dangerous purpose earlier this year.

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The young man’s defense attorney had asked for a 27-month sentence and that he spend only nine months in detention. The Crown asked that the young man, whose name cannot be published, serve at least 30 months in juvenile detention.

“The period (in juvenile detention) will be necessary for him to work on his readjustment,” Perreault said in his decision.

The young man is 19 years old. He was 16 on January 1, 2020, when he stabbed his 15-year-old friend in a school parking lot next to the Marc-Aurèle Fortin park in Laval. The victim’s brother was also in the parking lot, along with a couple of other friends. Evidence presented at trial revealed that all of the teens who were present expected a fight to break out and the teen convicted of manslaughter brought two knives with him. The two brothers confronted the 16-year-old and grabbed him before he drew at least one of the knives.

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During the trial, the young man testified in his defense. He said he didn’t remember stabbing his friend.

The conflict between the three teens began in December 2019 while the teens were out of school for vacation. While playing video games online, the teens communicated with each other through an app. One of the brothers made a vulgar comment about a girl the 16-year-old boy liked. The 16-year-old did not let the insult go and he and the brothers exchanged text messages for days insulting each other. The exchanges culminated in the 16-year-old being invited to the parking lot.

Before the conflict, the young man and the brothers had been very close friends from a young age, often sleeping over at each other’s houses.

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The boy’s father testified during the sentencing hearing that, from the day of the stabbing, his “family life stopped” and that every decision he and his wife made since then focused on their son.

“As for (his mother), she feels that her son has already been sentenced. For her, since 2020, she lives difficult times, she does not sleep and she worries all the time, ”said the judge.

The judge also took into account a series of expert reports that evaluated the young man and found that he had a low risk of recidivism.

“The expert reports were based almost exclusively on their meetings with (the convicted murderer) and his parents,” the judge said, noting that they “presented the best portrait they could of him rather than a complete one.”

“The second common element in the reports is that (he) faces a challenge after being released from his detention period and finds himself completely alone when he is released. Experts agree that he should benefit from the support that he can have a release with conditions that help him reintegrate into society ”.

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