More details are being shed on a plea deal reached yesterday by a teenager accused of killing an elder on the Canoe Lake Cree Nation.
The body of 73-year-old James Durocher was pulled from a burning home on the reserve in February of 2011.
The suspect in the case, who was 17 at the time of the incident, appeared in court yesterday on a charge of second-degree murder.
Family members of the deceased were on hand to testify, but didn’t have to do that because the youth pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Crown prosecutor Kelly Onyskevitch says the youth’s acceptance of an adult sentence was a factor in the decision to accept the plea on a lesser charge.
Onyskevitch explains, as a youth, the maximum sentence he could have gotten for manslaughter was three years.
As an adult, he says the maximum now rises to the possibility of a life sentence.
However, he notes the usual sentence handed out in Saskatchewan is between four and 12 years.
The youth will be sentenced on October 9th.