Teen who pleaded guilty in stabbing death of Hamilton student Devan Selvey faces sentencing today
CBC
The teenager who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 2019 fatal stabbing of 14-year-old Devan Selvey behind their Hamilton high school is set to be sentenced today.
The accused was also 14 at the time. He has been in custody since Devan was stabbed outside Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School on Oct. 7, 2019.
Now 16, the student pleaded guilty in a surprise move in November. He can't be identified under a court-ordered publication ban.
The Crown and defence lawyers are jointly calling for a sentence of seven years — the maximum for a youth convicted of second-degree murder.
However, they are asking for recognition of time served, which would see the teen spend just under two more years in custody, then three years under supervision in the community.
Lawyers are also asking the judge to order that the teen be enrolled in the intensive rehabilitative custody and supervision program, which Crown attorney Brett Moodie described as a "unique and powerful" tool that's only available in very serious offences.
Sentencing began on Feb. 25, but after a day spent listening to emotional victim impact statements from Devan's friends and family members, Ontario Superior Court Justice Andrew Goodman said he couldn't immediately provide a sentence.
The sentence was initially scheduled for April 28, adding a two-month wait to the already delayed process, but it will now take place Friday morning.
An agreed statement of facts, read in court when the accused pleaded guilty, said the teen stabbed Devan once in the right, upper back.
The murder weapon was a knife with a 15-centimetre blade, which tore through muscle and bone before slicing into Devan's lung, severing his pulmonary artery and causing rapid blood loss, court heard at the time.
Before the stabbing, the two teens were "strangers" who did not know each other, according to the agreed-upon facts.
On the day of the stabbing, Devan and a friend saw a group of teens hanging out near an arena across the road from the high school, including someone he thought had taken his bike about a month earlier, court was told.
He texted his sister and the parents of a friend who arrived at the school shortly afterwards, and one of the adults confronted the teens, the facts of the case state.
When an argument broke out, the older brother of the accused used bear mace, sending everyone running from the area.
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