Teen girl with role in killing gets another chance at freedom

Young killer gets chance at freedom

Killer teen allowed to live in group home again

Runaway killer deserves fourth chance: Judge

- One of the youngest killers in Winnipeg will be getting another chance at freedom.
- The 16-year-old girl -- who was 12 when she participated in the October 2006 killing of Audrey Cooper -- was released from jail Thursday afternoon despite recently running away from her court-ordered treatment centre.
- She had previously been convicted of manslaughter last summer and received the maximum sentence of 3 years custody and supervision under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
- She was arrested and taken into custody last October after she repeatedly ran away from a group home for troubled youth.
- Rejected Crown's argument to have her held behind bars until she turns 18 but warned this will be her final chance.
- Her probation officer believes she has learned her lesson.

- She is willing to attempt to make it work
- At the hearing yesterday, Crown argued that the girl showed no respect for court orders and should serve the remainder of her sentence in custody at the MB Youth Centre.
- The Judge ruled that the girl be released from custody and live at the group home, where she can get the help she needs.
- He said, “I believe the four months in custody are sufficient to show her what will happen if she does it again"
- Earlier this month, two now 17-year-old girls pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for their parts in the killing. A sentencing date is expected to be set next month.
- The maximum youth sentence for second-degree murder is seven years, of which three years or more must be served under community supervision.
- The girls have already spent nearly 31/2 years in custody.
- A now 18-year-old male co-accused is set to stand trial in June.

- The teen was sentenced last year to the maximum three-year sentence under the Youth Criminal Justice Act for her role in Cooper’s death. Queen's Bench Justice assigned her seven 1/2 months of pre-trial custody as credit, then filled out the rest of the term with 28 1/2 months of community supervision, which takes the girl to her 18th birthday.

- She was ordered to live at a local group home under 24-hour supervision until she is no longer a youth. She was warned that any breaches means the rest of her sentence could be converted to jail time.

- She fled the facility and escaped on three different occasions, the final time happening in October when she was caught hiding in a closet at her parent’s home, court was told. She has spent the past four months in custody.

- This was a breach of her court ordered conditions. 

- Defence told court the group home is supporting her release from jail and has a bed available for her. They plan to tighten supervision of his client and limit her contact with her family, who raised her in a climate of abuse and neglect which included being taught how to snort cocaine by her mother.

- Cooper was beaten until she was unrecognizable, stripped and then urinated on by a group of laughing teens who tossed loose change on her body as they fled. She was chosen randomly. 

- Suffered 64 separate injuries in the unprovoked attack, including seven broken ribs, a lacerated liver, swelling that shut both of her eyes and bleeding on the brain. Police arrested four suspects -- the 12-year-old girl, two 14-year-old girls and a 15-year-old boy. Three of the suspects remain before the courts.
- A report prepared for the 16-year-old girl’s sentencing last summer described her as “remorseless” and “entrenched” in the gang lifestyle.
- Court heard the girl’s mother and father — both residential school survivors — provided her with no parental guidance and that her mother showed her how to smoke crack. 

It's a horrible tragedy that this 34 year old woman was killed. But they key word in this case, is that this teen played a ROLE in the killing, but did not directly kill this woman, as the headline of this newspaper story suggests. I believe that with tighter supervision, this girl can obey the rules and be rehabilitated and helped through the treatment centre. I have sympathy towards her as she was raised in an abusive and neglected family life, where her mom demonstrated to her how to use cocaine. With such a family life, it's no wonder that this girl started hanging out with the deviant crowd of teens that obviously had a poor influence on this teen girl. 

She is not dangerous and did not attempt to even commit an offence when she fled. She was hiding. By being in prison, she would just be exposed to more pro criminal teens with their attitudes and behaviours, which is not trying to remove her from the lifestyle in which facilitated this incident in the first place. She needs to removed from pro criminal people (who are in prison) and placed in the group home, where she can get help, meet new people and try to change the conditions of her lifestyle to become more positive (not abusive). 

From the comments on the WFP website, people are outraged and are wanting capital punishment and life sentences. This will not fix anything and is inhumane and barbaric. This teen needs help, not more pro criminal people surrounding her. They have good reason to be upset though, because the media is probably the only source of their criminal justice system knowledge and many media articles display bias in favour of a certain side leading individuals to believe a certain idea. They also only report on when the system malfunctions, such as someone getting a shot at freedom and not when everything works out fine, which is the majority of the time.

I agree that these teens should have known the difference between right and wrong, but I believe that this 12 year old girl, could have been influenced or pressured by the others, and may not have known.