Teen gets 36 months for helping plan robbery at Selkirk rehab facility
Caroline Barghout | CBC News | Posted: June 9, 2017 8:52 PM | Last Updated: June 9, 2017
'I didn't know it would be this gruesome': 17-year-old pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery
A second teen has been sentenced in the 2016 attack on two women at the Behavioural Health Foundation facility in Selkirk.
Jackie Healey, 24, suffered broken bones in her face and head and is now blind in one eye after two teens beat her and another employee with a baseball bat and pool balls stuffed in a sock. Healey was on the last day of her work practicum for social work at the time.
In May, the first teen to be sentenced received 30 months for his role in the attack.
This afternoon, Provincial Court Judge Ryan Rolston granted a joint recommendation of a 36-month sentence for the second teen. The 17-year-old, who can't be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery. He had no prior criminal record.
At the sentencing hearing, the judge was told the teen was at home when he conspired over the phone with the two youths at the Behavioural Health Centre in Selkirk, who said they planned to steal a vehicle to drive to Winnipeg.
"I didn't know it would be this gruesome," the teen later told police.
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After a year in custody, the teen will spend six more months behind bars and three months under community supervision, followed by one year probation. He received time-and-a-half credit for time served.
The Crown said it plans to ask for an adult sentence for the third teen convicted in the attack.
The judge asked the teen's mom if she had anything to say. "We've grown and learned from this," she said. "It's been difficult."
The teen told the court, "I know what I did was wrong and I'm ready to move forward."
Rolston said he believes that if the teen could turn back time and prevent what happened, he would. But he warned the teen that he will soon be an adult and then, "the game changes quite a bit."
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"I see two paths you could take. One path is a path that will bring you back here again. It will be a path that will see you come into the criminal justice system again and again and again," he said.
"On the other hand there's another path for you and it's a path that might be harder for you to walk, in some ways. It involves saying no to those friends you've encountered at the youth centre. Now that you're stepping out of custody, you're going to have to choose."
The teen also received one year of probation for an unrelated arson charge he pleaded guilty to.
One of his conditions, imposed by Rolston, is that he will participate in a team sport while on probation.