'No magic healing' can ease pain of son's death: Haiart sentencing

The mother of slain Winnipeg teenager Phil Haiart gave an emotional statement Tuesday at the sentencing hearing of a youth convicted in her son's death.

Haiart, 17, was killed by a gunshot in Winnipeg's West End neighbourhood in October 2005.

The accused, who cannot be named because he was a minor at the time of the shooting, was convicted of one charge of second-degree murder and three charges of attempted murder.

Haiart's mother, Alyson Haiart, delivered a heart-wrenching victim impact statement in court Tuesday.

She called the last two years "emotionally draining," saying it was easier to sit at home and not have to respond to well-wishers asking how she was holding up.

Her son's death continues to affect her personal and professional life, she said, and there was "no magic healing."

Queen's Bench Justice Albert Clearwater must now decide whether to raise the young man convicted in the case to adult status for sentencing.

Now 20, the man was just five days short of his 18th birthday when Haiart was killed. The Crown has argued he should be sentenced as an adult.

The jury in the trial heard evidence the convicted man urged another man to open fire on two rival drug dealers in a turf-related gang war.Haiart and a friend, who was also shot, unknowingly walked into the gunfire.

During Tuesday's hearing, Crown attorney Jean McBride said, "Gangs, drugs and firearms— this is a community's worst fear."

The young man's lawyer, Jeffrey Nichols, urged Clearwater to consider his client a youth at the time of the crime, saying his client "hadn't learned to play by the rules" at the time of the shooting.

If Clearwater decides to sentence the man as an adult, it could mean a lot more time behind bars.

As a youth, the maximum he could serve is seven years, four of them in custody.

As an adult, second-degree murder carries a mandatory life sentence, although the youth conviction means he would be eligible for parole in seven years.

The man has already been in custody for 23 months.

A decision on the matter is expected Wednesday.

The guilty verdict in the convicted man's trial was an almost complete reversal of an earlier trial in connection with the same shooting.

In that case, Jeffrey Cansanay, 21, was acquitted of second-degree murder and attempted murder after two witnesses refused to testify at trial. The judge in Cansanay's case refused to allow the witnesses' videotaped statements to police into evidence.

In the case of the current accused, three witnesses refused to swear an oath and testify during the trial, but Clearwater allowed videotaped statements the three gave to police to be played at trial.

After they refused to testify, Clearwater convicted the three men— Jammal Jacob, Cory Amyotte and Gharib Abdullah— of contempt of court, and handed them sentences ranging from three to four years in prison.