Teen gets life for ‘horrific’ crime

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This article was published 29/07/2009 (5951 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — A teenage girl with a "capacity for manipulation" and a "lack of empathy" who waged a relentless campaign to have her 14-year-old perceived romantic rival killed, was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for the "malevolent" crime.

Previously identified only as M.T. because she was just shy of her 16th birthday at the time of the murder, her adult sentence for first-degree murder means Melissa Todorovic can now be named.

At her behest, Todorovic’s then 17-year-old boyfriend lured Stefanie Rengel from her home on New Year’s Day 2008. The boyfriend, known only as D.B., has pleaded guilty to stabbing Rengel six times and leaving her to die in a snowbank.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer said it was a "horrific" crime committed "for reasons that are still unfathomable," and that the facts of the case are unprecedented.

"One can only hope that they remain so given how truly malevolent they are in their content," he said in his decision.

"The concept that teenage angst becomes a driving force for murder leaves one both shocked by, and incredulous at, its manifestation."

Todorovic viewed Rengel, who had been in a brief and non-sexual relationship with D.B. when she was 12, as her rival and over the course of Todorovic and D.B.’s "stormy" relationship, Rengel grew for Todorovic "from an irritation to an obsession," Nordheimer said.

Todorovic "engaged in an unrelenting campaign over many months to cause the death of a 14-year-old girl that she had never met," he said.

She placed "relentless pressure" on D.B. through instant messages, text messages and Facebook messages threatening to withhold sex from him if he didn’t kill Rengel.

D.B. earlier pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and his sentencing hearing begins in September.

Defence lawyer Marshall Sack had maintained that Todorovic was less culpable than D.B. because he was the one who actually stabbed Rengel, but Nordheimer disagreed.

"Put simply, the puppet master is not less blameworthy than the puppet," he told the court.

"Indeed, I would suggest that the master is more culpable since he or she puts the wheels in motion and then stands back under a facade of disassociation while the scheme they have created unfolds."

In handing down the adult sentence, Nordheimer set Todorovic’s parole eligibility at the maximum of seven years.

Members of both families cried after the sentence was read, while after hearing the words "adult sentence" a hint of a smile crept across the face of Rengel’s 13-year-old brother Ian.

Outside court he faced a throng of cameras to read a statement on behalf of his family.

"We are relieved at the adult sentence and we appreciate the difficult decision that Judge Nordheimer faced," said the boy, with his parents Patricia Hung and Adolfo Rengel close behind him.

 

— The Canadian Press