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The murder-for-hire plot that foiled when the proposed hitman decided he didn’t want the blood of a 16-year-old on his hands has landed a Calgary teen the maximum youth sentence.
Youth court Justice Gay Benns on Friday accepted a joint submission by Crown prosecutor Rob Bassett and defence lawyer Vignesh Pillai to hand the offender a three-year sentence.
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The teen had earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of counselling someone to commit murder.
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Under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the sentence will be divided into two years of custody followed by one year of community supervision.
Benns also agreed with the lawyers that the five months the offender spent in detention prior to being released on bail would be deducted from the custodial portion of the sentence.
Bassett argued the maximum youth term was warranted considering the seriousness of the now-17-year-old’s crime.
And the prosecutor noted the teen was on release prior to the plot for attacking a schoolmate with a knife.
That incident happened on Dec. 8, 2021.
Youth tried hiring adult to kill his best friend who’d been bullying him
Between May 9 and June 28, 2022, the offender tried to hire an adult male, identified in court as D.S., to kill his best friend, who had been bullying him.
In the early days the offender asked D.S. if he could buy a firearm from him and inquired if he knew “anyone who does hits,” according to a statement of agreed facts read in by co-prosecutor Janice Walsh in May.
The proposed hit man contacted police on May 13 to discuss his exchanges with the teen, telling investigators he had a criminal past but did “not want a dead 16-year-old on his conscience.”
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Police then looked at making D.S. a police agent while telling him to stall the offender “and not make any deadlines with him.”
The following day D.S. sent the youth a text saying he had a Mexican who could do the hit for $5,000.
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Pillai said his client was brought up in a violent home and did not trust the authorities to protect him from his bullying friend.
“Ultimately (he) wants to put this part of his life behind him,” the lawyer said.
“This is a young person who found himself in a very difficult situation,” Pillai said.
Bassett said the teen counseled another person to commit the most serious offence in the Criminal Code, first-degree murder.
Had he been sentenced as an adult he would have faced a much stiffer sentence, the prosecutor said.
In accepting the joint recommendation, Benns encouraged the teen to take advantage of his time at the Calgary Young Offender Centre.
“This is your opportunity to get it together,” the judge said.
KMartin@postmedia.com
X: @KMartinCourts
