Remember the boy in San Diego that was tried and convicted as an adult in the shooting death of 3 teens a couple of years ago? Well, he was also bullied to the point of "snapping" but won't be getting out of prison for another 50 years or so. Fortunately this boy lives in Canada where apparently, youthful offenders have a better chance of getting a "second chance". Anyone have an opinion on the disparity in sentencing?
Fri Dec 12, 6:39 PM ET
Taber shooter's best hope of recovery is if released to family, experts say
by JAMES MCCARTEN
COBOURG, Ont. (CP) - It's time the troubled young man convicted in the savage shooting death of a high school student in Taber, Alta., in 1999 was in the custody of his family, not jail, court was told Friday.
After hearing Crown witnesses portray the youth as a demented, remorseless danger to society, Superior Court Justice Rhys Morgan found himself listening Friday to precisely the opposite view.
The constellation of circumstances that led the youth to commit cold-blooded murder is unlikely to ever form itself again, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Clive Chamberlain testified for the defense.
Far from the chilling portrait of a borderline psychopath painted by the Crown, Chamberlain instead depicted a socially awkward and chronically picked-on teen with high blood pressure whose torment went largely undetected.
"Nobody understood the despair and the pressure and the anger that was piling up; nobody picked up on it," he testified.
"School is a difficult place, and if you're a little odd, it's hard to find a safe place. . . . It's far from unlikely (the youth) will find a niche in the world now that he's no longer a kid."
Chamberlain told court the teen, now 19, had been on medication in the months before he sawed off his stepfather's .22-calibre rifle and used it to kill 17-year-old Jason Lang in the hallway of W.R. Myers high school in Taber, a small town just south of Calgary.
He also had an undiagnosed medical condition - a constricted aorta.
Together with medication known to increase blood pressure, the combination was potentially deadly, Chamberlain said.
Indeed, not long after the shooting, the youth suffered a stroke as a result of his condition and continues to undergo speech therapy.
That condition is no longer a problem, nor is the persistent bullying he endured as a child. The pressure of being a teenaged outsider unwelcomed by the "cool crowd" is also gone, Chamberlain said.
The youth has made significant progress since he was first jailed three years ago, and his release would pose "minimal" risk to the community if done properly, said Dr. Richard Meen, clinical director at the Syl Apps Youth Centre in Oakville, Ont.
"It's time for him to be returned to the community and be de-institutionalized," Meen said.
The youth has been described in previous testimony as having no remorse for his victim and little empathy if any for the victim's family. But he does have empathy for his own family and regrets the impact the tragedy has had on them, Meen said.
His family members have committed themselves to him to such an extent that they've relocated to Ontario to be closer to him and are willing to take an active role in his recovery, Meen said.
"The literature is very clear that family support with (a) youth when incarcerated and then when introduced back into the community is a key, key factor in their success," he said.
Several other doctors have already depicted the youth as having a "conduct disorder," a condition that can be an early indicator of more serious personality disorders in adulthood.
Nonsense, Chamberlain said.
"In my view, I don't feel that (the youth) meets the criteria of conduct disorder at all," he said. "There isn't a straight line between conduct disorder and psychopathy."
Chamberlain did make it clear, however, that an abundance of caution would be necessary to ensure that the youth doesn't harm himself or anyone else once released.
"Wisdom suggests to me that as much vigilance and support as possible needs to be mustered in order to achieve an acceptable degree of comfort."
The hearing is scheduled to resume Dec. 23, but only to set a future date, likely Jan. 7, Morgan said.
Court has been told that the youth remains obsessed with violence in movies and video games, plagued by hallucinations and unable to generate much true remorse for his crime or for his victims.
Meen said that youths convicted of a single offence are usually far easier to rehabilitate than those who have a history of conflict with the law.
During cross-examination, Crown attorney David Thompson tried to discredit Meen, pointing out that he had strayed from accepted psychiatric standards in diagnosing the youth with an "immature personality disorder with anti-social features," and that he'd had little training in standardized tests designed to diagnose psychopathy.
Meen coolly fielded Thompson's aggressive line of questioning, insisting that those standards are merely guidelines for diagnosis, not hard and fast rules.
To counter Meen's claim that the youth has made progress in custody, Thompson also pointed out that he has a history of self-mutilation, refused to sign a proposed plan of care and continues to resort to "violent fantasies" to cope with stress.
He's fantasized about taking all of the people in a shopping mall hostage and about killing police officers, and has also professed to looking forward to his release so he can resume playing violent video games, Thompson added.
"That's one of his goals," the prosecutor sneered.
The shooting, in which another student was injured, was sparked in part by a rampage eight days earlier in Littleton, Colo., at Columbine High School by two trenchcoat-clad youths: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, both of whom took their own lives after killing 12 students and a teacher.
