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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Conviction for breaking curfew is latest of teen's many setbacks
The 18-year-old is notorious for laughing and telling police she "didn't care" after she was a passenger in a stolen Chevrolet Avalanche that killed a Winnipeg cabbie in March 2008.
However, she wasn't laughing on Friday. Instead, she stared mournfully at a judge.
Defence lawyer Crystal Antila told Judge Theodore Lismer the teen has had a tough transition to adult jail after being arrested for violating her 9 p.m. curfew on Dec. 30.
The teen said she begged a friend for a ride home.
"We slid into the snowbank and he stalled," the teen told the court, saying she had a cigarette with her friend to thank him for driving her home.
That's when officers found her.
Antila told court her client, who turned 18 last year, is losing her hair and has had trouble getting medical help for her kidney problems in jail.
The young woman has spent 57 days in the Portage Correctional Centre, an antiquated jail near Portage la Prairie.
Her family does not have a car and she's been socially isolated while trying to cope with the suicides of three of her friends.
"She's had a number of setbacks," said Antila, who said the jail time has been a "learning experience" for her client.
Crown attorney Mick Makar said the teen has run into trouble repeatedly by failing to comply with conditions of a two-year probation order from June 2008.
She was the first female to be forced to wear an electronic-monitoring bracelet as part of Manitoba's auto theft strategy.
During that time, media have chronicled the teen's constant breaches of court orders and her Internet postings about the crash involving the stolen truck.
The truck went through a red light at Portage Avenue and Maryland Street and struck cabbie Antonio Lanzellotti's car, killing him.
Since October, she's been charged with multiple breaches in connection with at least four incidents.
Lismer found the teen guilty of failing to abide by her curfew, one of her probation conditions under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
He stayed a charge of failing to keep the peace and be of good behaviour on December 30, another condition of her sentence.
The judge also warned her to start obeying court orders.
The young woman has a loving, supportive family and plans to further her education past Grade 9 level, court heard.
She was sentenced to 25 days in custody, which she's already served as part of her time at the Portage jail.
The Free Press cannot name her because it would identify her prior convictions as a young offender.
gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 27, 2010 B2
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