Lawyer for La Loche shooter argues client should serve sentence as youth

REGINA – A Crown prosecutor says a young man who shot and killed four people in northern Saskatchewan had a relatively sophisticated plan and deserves to be punished as an adult.

Beverly Klatt was in a Regina court today arguing against an appeal for the shooter to be sentenced as a youth.

The shooter was weeks shy of turning 18 when he killed two brothers at their home and then a teacher and a teacher’s aide at the La Loche high school in 2016.

He wounded seven others in the school.

The young man pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, second-degree murder and attempted murder and last year was sentenced as an adult to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.

Klatt says despite his low IQ and cognitive problems, his planning of the shooting was sophisticated.

Aaron Fox, the lawyer for the man, says his client was an isolated teenager crying out for help that never came.

In January, Fox filed documents with the Appeal Court that said his client is a “lost soul who slipped through the cracks” as he suffers from different mental disorders and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

Fox argued the sentencing judge focused on the gravity of the crime while failing to consider evidence that spoke to cognitive problems affecting the offender’s maturity, empathy, ability to understand consequences and, above all, his level of blame.

“All of which were aggravated by a multitude of surrounding circumstances, not the least of which was the failure of the education system in La Loche, to supply him with the help that he needed,” said the documents.

The Court of Appeal has reserved its decision.

A publication ban ordered because of the appeal prevents identifying him.

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