Crown seeks adult sentences for youth in 2020 shooting spree

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This article was published 24/10/2022 (1096 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two teens facing possible life sentences for a Winnipeg shooting spree that left one woman dead and three others wounded could be released from custody in as little as 2 1/2 years, a court heard Monday.

Prosecutors are seeking adult sentences for the now 16- and 18-year-old killers, whose July 1, 2020, rampage claimed the life of 27-year-old Danielle Cote.

The older teen pleaded guilty last year to second-degree murder and other offences. The younger accused was found guilty after trial in December of first-degree murder and related offences.

Because they were only 14- and 15-years-old, respectively, at the time of the shootings, if sentenced as adults, they would be eligible for parole after serving between five and seven years in custody, Crown attorney Jodi Koffman told court in Winnipeg.

The teens have remained in custody since their arrest shortly after the shootings, time served which would be deducted from their period of parole ineligibility.

“Technically, they both could be eligible for parole in about 2 1/2 years,” Koffman told King’s Bench Justice Chris Martin.

Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, youth are considered to be of “diminished moral blameworthiness,” compared to adults. To persuade a court to impose an adult sentence, prosecutors must successfully “rebut” that presumption and satisfy a judge a youth sentence is of insufficient length to hold an offender accountable.

While the younger teen wielded the sawed-off rifle used in three of the attacks, including the one on Cote, both teens “were equal partners… both taking actions to contribute to the offences,” Koffman said.

“These are people who are calculated and able to exercise forethought in their actions,” she said. “It is the Crown’s submission that these accused are not your typical youth offenders as presumed by the Youth Criminal Justice Act.”

Court heard testimony at the younger teen’s trial, prior to the shootings, the two were at a friend’s apartment when one of them was overheard saying: “Let’s go catch some bodies.”

The pair’s first victim was walking on Isabel Street with an unidentified man around 2:30 a.m. July 1, 2020, when, in an exchange captured by security video, the younger boy walked up to them and pointed a sawed-off rifle at their heads.

The woman grabbed the barrel of the rifle and, during a struggle for control of the weapon, was shot in the leg.

The young woman was not seriously injured and turned down help from paramedics who arrived moments after the shooting.

About 45 minutes later, Cote and her 18-year-old cousin Keanu Ducharme were walking on Flora Avenue on their way to a convenience store when they were confronted at gunpoint by two males demanding, “Give us your s—-.”

When Ducharme didn’t respond, one of the males said: “F—- it, kill him,” he testified at trial.

“I was shot in the face” and fell face-down to the ground. Ducharme said he “played dead” as Cote shouted: “You shot my cousin. You killed my cousin.”

“I heard one of (the males) say: ‘We got to kill her, too.’ Then, I heard a gunshot again.”

Cote tried to run and was shot in the back of the head. She died instantly.

The final victim, Gordon McGinty, was sitting near the outdoor stage at The Forks around midnight when the older teen tapped the barrel of a rifle against his head. Court was told the younger teen said: “Shoot him already,” before the older teen shot McGinty through the left ear.

Court heard evidence the teens shot McGinty in retribution for him pepper spraying them outside a Kennedy Street apartment earlier in the day.

The teens were initially charged in connection with a fifth attack — a 44-year-old man had been shot before being struck by a car on Balmoral Street — but the charges were later stayed for lack of evidence.

The younger accused had his first run in with law at 12, when he was arrested for threatening another child with a machete. According to a pre-sentence report prepared in connection to a later offence, the youth “thought being a gangster, hurting people and stealing was cool,” Koffman told court.

The sentencing hearing is set for a week.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca