Chris's Crime Forum

Trial starts Monday for Alberta girl accused of murdering parents, little brother.

MEDICINE HAT, Alta. (CP) - A first-degree murder trial begins Monday for a 13-year-old girl accused of slaughtering her parents and little brother in a case that has stunned this unassuming southern Alberta city.

The killings have drawn international attention to Medicine Hat, where rumours abound of what lay below the surface - a forbidden relationship and out-of-control preteen rebellion - all entwined in the Goth subculture.

The accused was just 12 years old and in Grade 7 when her family members were found dead in their home in April 2006. Her brother was only eight. He was buried with his parents in Sudbury, Ont., where the family lived before moving to Alberta in the late 1990s.

The girl, who cannot be identified under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Her co-accused and boyfriend at the time of the incident, 24-year-old Jeremy Steinke, faces the same murder charges. He will be tried later as an adult and so faces a far stiffer possible penalty.

The defence strategy for the girl remains largely unknown. The police have been tight-lipped about the case from the outset, even refusing to disclose how her three family members died.

More at link

http://tinyurl.com/2epzjk

Media ban argued at trial of Alberta girl accused of murdering family

MEDICINE HAT, Alta. (CP) - With a quivering voice and on the verge of tears, a 13-year-old girl gave three barely audible versions of "not guilty" to start her first-degree murder trial Monday on charges that she killed her parents and young brother.

The accused, who cannot be identified under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, looked nervously around as she entered the Medicine Hat courtroom.

She sat alone in the prisoner's box, clad in a prison-issue blue shirt and pants.

It's been fourteen months since the family was killed in its own home, stunning this conservative southeastern Alberta city and sending shock waves across Canada for the age of the accused and allegations of preteen rebellion entwined in the Goth subculture.

Her co-accused and boyfriend at the time of the crimes, 24-year-old Jeremy Steinke, will face the same three charges of first-degree murder at a later date.

The case started slow Monday with a debate over whether the public - including the media - should be banned from the courtroom during the first week of the trial while lawyers argue over the admissibility of evidence.

Lawyers for several news outlets, including The Canadian Press, CBC and the Calgary Herald contested the exclusion application that the girl's lawyer proposed late last week.

Under a temporary ban, details of the arguments made in court Monday cannot be published.

Alberta Court of Queen's Bench Justice Scott Brooker is expected to rule on the exclusion application Tuesday morning.

The rest of the week is scheduled to deal with admissibility of evidence, with the jury being called in next week.

Recently extended by five days, the Crown now expects the murder trial to stretch six weeks in length into the middle of July.

"Once you start a jury trial, you soldier on until you finish," Crown lawyer Stephanie Cleary said Monday.

Cleary said the prosecution expects to call at least "several dozen" witnesses as the case proceeds.

More at link

http://tinyurl.com/yvn4ep

Medicine Hat is less than an hour from where I live.I have been following this triple murder since it happened last year.I may go attend a day of the trial once it gets going if they are going to allow the public to attend.That will be decided tomorrow.

Such a disturbing case it baffles me how a 12 girl could be so mad at her parents enough to murder them.Alot of things have been said on what actually happened that night in the house,to disturbing to put here.If it is put in the media I will post it,if not anyone who wishes to know may pm me and I will send you the details I know.

Alberta judge refuses to ban public and media from start of girl's murder trial

MEDICINE HAT, Alta. (CP) - An Alberta judge refused Tuesday to take the "drastic and extremely rare" step of banning reporters and other members of the public from the early days of the trial of a young girl accused of killing her family.

The 13-year-old faces three first-degree murder charges in the deaths of her parents and younger brother. Their bodies were found in their home in the southern Alberta city of Medicine Hat in April 2006.

The girl sat alone in the prisoner's box, where she wept openly. During breaks, she was led away clutching a tissue box in her hand.

It's been 14 months since her parents and brother were found dead by police, called by a neighbour whose young son apparently saw a body when he went to call on his buddy. The discovery stunned city residents and sent shock waves across Canada because of the age of the accused.

Two others, 19-year-old Kacy Lancaster and a 16-year-old girl, have been charged with accessory to murder for allegedly trying to help cover up the crime. Both cases are moving through the legal system.

http://tinyurl.com/2hs68l

Editor, reporters slapped with contempt of court charges

MEDICINE HAT -- Two reporters and an editor face contempt of court charges related to a publication ban in the trial of a 13-year-old girl accused of killing her family.

The ban by Mr. Justice Scott Brooker of Court of Queen's Bench bars publication of any details discussed in a pretrial hearing before the main part of the girl's trial begins next week in front of a jury.

She faces three counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of her parents and younger brother in Medicine Hat in April 2006.

Judge Brooker's order also forbids naming any news organization believed to have broken the ban.

The alleged violation in a report this week came after Judge Brooker rejected an application by the girl's lawyer to bar the public and news media from the pretrial hearing, which was held to determine admissibility of some evidence.

The news outlet's lawyer argued yesterday that the information presented in the news piece was already in the public domain. The lawyer also said the violation was not intended, and the information in question was simply used as background by the writers.

Judge Brooker cited some concern over the matter.

"I don't want this dragging on and I don't want it interfering with the trial," he said.

A date for the contempt hearing is to be set Monday. The defence has asked for two weeks to prepare witnesses and evidence.

The jury is to be chosen Monday as well, and Crown prosecutor Stephanie Cleary said she anticipates making an opening statement that day. The girl's trial is expected to run for five weeks.

http://tinyurl.com/2egaua

Rebellious daughter plotted murders: Crown
Updated Mon. Jun. 11 2007 6:31 PM ET

Canadian Press

MEDICINE HAT, Alta. -- A bloody rampage that claimed a southern Alberta couple and their young son stemmed from a plot by their 12-year-old daughter, who was angered by her parents' disapproval of a boyfriend nearly twice her age, an Alberta court was told Monday.

In her opening statement at the girl's first-degree murder trial, Crown prosecutor Stephanie Cleary revealed that all three victims had been repeatedly stabbed in their Medicine Hat home one night in April 2006.

Both adults were found in the basement -- the father had 24 stab wounds, the mother had 12. There were signs that both struggled with their attacker.

The couple's eight-year-old son suffered five wounds, including major cuts to his throat. Police found his body in his bed, but Cleary said evidence would show that he'd been bleeding in the hallway outside the bedroom.

Evidence at the scene included two knives, one found downstairs and one in an upstairs bathroom, both stained with blood from the girl and her brother.

A jury of seven men and five women was chosen for the trial, which is expected to last five weeks.

More at link

http://tinyurl.com/392x7t

Police saw “blood on the walls” at triple murder scene

MEDICINE HAT, Alta. — A forensics expert described the blood-soaked bedroom of an eight-year-old boy — including blood-splattered toys and blood on the wall above his bed — during Tuesday morning testimony in the murder trial of a 13-year-old girl.

“There was blood all over the walls and the boy,” Constable Gerald Sadlemyer, of the Medicine Hat Police Service, told court during the second day of the trial.

“Sheets, everything, was soaked with blood. The boy had blood from head to toe.”

Jurors showed little emotion as they looked at bloody crime scene photographs showing the bodies of the boy and his parents, Marc and Debra Richardson, stabbed to death in their home in April 2006.

They had been repeatedly stabbed in what the Crown alleges was a planned and deliberate murder plot involving a 12-year-old girl and her 23-year-old boyfriend.

Sadlemyer this morning described methodically going through the four-level split home on April 23, 2006, taking photos of the bodies of the Richardsons.

Marc Richardson, the boy’s father, was found in a lower level with “his head, neck and body covered with blood” and a large blood stain on the crotch of his boxer shorts. He had “a large number of wounds to his head and neck.”
He had been stabbed 24 times, court was told Monday.

Debra Richardson, who suffered 12 stab wounds, was found in the same room as her husband, lying at the foot of the stairs “covered with a lot of blood from head to toe,” Sadlemyer said, adding she had defensive wounds on her hands and arms.

She was clutching a wad of hair in her hand that Sadlemyer believed to have come from someone else.

A high prisoner’s box obscures public view of the young girl, now 13, charged with the murders. Her reaction to the evidence was not known.

One female member of the jury appeared at one point to wipe away a tear and one young man held his head in his hands, but the seven men and five women mostly listened intently and studied the photos without any visible sign of emotion.

Police said there was evidence Marc Richardson had been in a violent struggle with his attacker: investigators found a broken railing, and Richardson’s hands were clenched in what might have been a fighting position.

http://tinyurl.com/2nrxxu

Murder -- then burgers

MEDICINE HAT, Alta. -- A teen girl charged with slaughtering her family made out with her boyfriend and went out for burgers after the killings, court heard yesterday.

"I hate them, so I have this plan -- it begins with me killing them and ends with me living with you," Cleary said of the posting.

After the slayings, the accused, now 13, took a taxi to Steinke's Medicine Hat home, where he and other friends were, jurors were told.

There the teen was heard to say "my little brother gargled," while the murders were being discussed, Cleary said.

The girl and Steinke were "making out in the afternoon after the murders and eating Burger King," the prosecutor said.

Cleary said the boy "suffered five sharp force injuries, including a large and deep cut to the front of his neck," which severed his jugular.

http://tinyurl.com/3dze2w

Back to top

Police compared shoeprints at bloody triple murder scene

MEDICINE HAT, Alta. — Shoeprints left in the dirt outside a broken basement window and inside a slain family’s home are similar to size six running shoes belonging a 13-year-old girl accused in the killings and a larger pair believed to belong to her co-accused boyfriend, a forensics expert told court Wednesday.

But testing the basement carpet where a couple’s bodies were found for footwear impressions was impossible, said Medicine Hat Police forensic identification specialist Const. Mike Storozuk.

“The basement was so soaked in blood it would be impossible to obtain footwear impressions (from the carpet),” he said.

Nine shoeprints were found outside a broken window at the back of the suburban home April 23, 2006. Inside, the bodies of Marc and Debra Richardson and their eight-year-old son were found, apparently dead of multiple stab wounds. The prints recovered were consistent with the soles of the shoes police seized from the girl and Jeremy Allen Steinke, now 24, said Storozuk.

Blood was smeared in the stairwell and covered the carpet, ceiling and walls of the basement rec room where the married couple’s bodies were found, the jury heard. Debra, 48, had sandy coloured hairs caught in her fingers. Marc, 41, had been stabbed 24 times. Their young boy Jacob was found dead in his upstairs bed. His throat had been slashed open and his body was smeared with dried blood.

Lots more at the link

http://tinyurl.com/2ocpjx

Drawing in accused girl’s locker shows people being torched

MEDICINE HAT, Alta. -- A child's stick drawing depicting people burning alive was shown to jurors at a 13-year-old girl's first-degree murder trial Thursday.

The 10-panel pencil drawing, found in the girl's school locker the day a family of three was found slain, shows a group of people out for a walk.

An image labelled "Jeremy's truck" is shown waiting in the distance. Another panel depicts two tall figures holding hands at a picnic table and a short figure on a swingset being doused with gasoline from a lawn sprinkler.

A frowning figure igniting the gas is drawn laughing. One figure engulfed in flames is lying on the ground, saying, "The unimaginable pain."

The accused's school guidance counsellor discovered the drawing on April 23, 2006, just hours after Marc and Debra Richardson and their eight-year-old son were found slain in their suburban home.

In the weeks leading up to the killings, the girl's dress and makeup began changing, the counsellor told Court of Queen's Bench. She used dark eyeliner to draw teardrops from her eyes, wore shorter skirts, chains, a collar, and drew pentagram doodles on her arms.

http://tinyurl.com/3e2moh