Decision Next Month on Fate of Teenage Killer

By Okanagan Saturday Staff, January 28, 2006 A judge will decide next month whether to imprison a teenage killer in a youth facility or adult prison. Judge Nancy Phillips adjourned her sentencing of the 18-year-old Kelowna man at the close of a threeday hearing Friday. She'll announce when she'll deliver it next Thursday. The man, who was 17 at the time, pleaded guilty to stabbing Kenneth Scully to death as the 57-year-old newcomer to Kelowna walked along Fuller Avenue with a friend last January. The other men are before the courts on charges of manslaughter. Because the crime was serious and the accused was under 18, Phillips must decide whether to sentence him as a youth or as an adult. Crown counsel Wendy Kavanagh wants the maximum for second-degree murder-life imprisonment without parole eligibility for seven years. She argued the man has a history of defiance and violence, poses a high risk of reoffending and has expressed little remorse. The attack was violent in the extreme and without provocation. It's notable for its apparent randomness, she told Phillips. Scully had recently moved to Kelowna after retiring from his job in Ontario. He was walking with his landlord from a downtown supermarket to his home on Fuller Avenue when they were confronted by three men. Scully and the landlord tried to run away, but Scully fell. He was attacked and stabbed to death through heavy winter clothes. The youth had just been released from custody after a conviction for assault. He was on probation and had been drinking shortly before the attack. His responsibility for the attack is high. He is the only attacker with a knife. The victim was stabbed 19 times. The victim didn't fight back, Kavanagh said. The youth told authorities, I shanked a crankhead before being told Scully was a family man. He then turned white and was visibly affected, said his lawyer, William Mastop. The accused comes from a difficult family background and fell off the rails at age 15 or 16, court heard. He has a substance-abuse problem and a conduct disorder that require counseling, Kavanagh said. However, his responsiveness to counselling in the past has been extremely poor and there's a risk of him attacking other people once he's released, she said. There's no suggestion he's tender to the point where he needs to be in a youth facility. He doesn't fit within the dynamics of a youth facility anymore. He's too old.

Mastop argued this boy is too young for an adult penitentiary. The benefits there are dubious because the average age of inmates is 34, and 40 per cent of them have been imprisoned before, he said. The influence of adult criminals would affect him, and he'd have less access to narcotics in the youth system. Young men in particular do stupid things. Young men don't think well at times, Mastop said. Something set this accused off. He stabbed him, chased him and stabbed him. The incident took less than two minutes. The accused has done well in jail awaiting sentencing over the last year, completing his Science 11 and making headway in his substance-abuse program, Mastop said. The needs of society and this young person have to be considered. This accused is clearly a young person. The other accused face trial as adults in BC Supreme Court in April.