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R. v. A.B. | 2024 | TORONTO

My youngest client ever, at 13 years old, AB was charged along with 7 other girls in the swarming death of a homeless man named Kenneth Lee, who was beaten and stabbed during an altercation that was caught on CCTV footage and witnessed by several bystanders. I successfully argued for bail at the outset of the case and then negotiated a plea to manslaughter after the preliminary hearing. During the litigation, we learned that my client had been subjected to 6 illegal strip searches by the detention centres she was housed at. At the sentencing hearing, I argued that she should receive 3:1 credit for the time spent in closed custody (where the illegal searches occurred) plus her time in open custody totaling 15 months and that this was enough time in custody given her lack of criminal record, intoxication at the time of the offence, and the counseling she was doing to address underlying issues. The judge agreed and no further custody was ordered. He also agreed that an additional 21 months of probation, allowing her to continue the counselling programs she needed, would meet the ends of justice in this case.