Parents too old for baby, court says? The parents of a 14-year-old who shot a man at a party ought to receive a sentence for failing the boy, a provincial court judge said Thursday.
"The blame for where you are lies with your parents," Judge Daryl Labach said to the handcuffed teen in the prisoner's box Thursday. parents too old,
The youth's "utter and complete lack of respect" for the law and the court system is "astonishing and repulsive," Labach said.
The teen pleaded guilty to aggravated assault for injuring a 25-year-old man at a house on Avenue H South on April 30, which resulted in the police emergency response team closing nearby streets for several hours and warning area residents to stay in their homes.
About 14 people eventually came out of the house and were taken in for questioning. A sawed-off .22-calibre rifle was found in the house.
The victim told police he and his friends had passed out from drinking. He'd awoken and asked for some of the teens' alcohol when one punched him and the other shot him.
The bullet entered his shoulder and came out the front of his chest, through the pectoral muscle, said Crown prosecutor Paul Goldstein.
As the victim left he was assaulted by two teenage girls who had been with the attackers. He then took an hour-long city bus ride to his girlfriend's home, from which he called police.
The victim identified the youth in a photo lineup as the shooter and Terrance Desjarlais, 18, as the man who punched him before he was shot. Desjarlais was sentenced in June to 45 days time served for assault.
Police used DNA from the stock of the rifle to prove the teen had handled it. They also matched blood drops on the teen's shoes to the victim.
The youth was arrested on the street three days later and has been in custody since then.
In response to questions from Labach, the youth said he carried the gun for his own safety.
"I pulled it out, I was going to shoot him. I thought it was a good idea at the time," he said.
Goldstein said the boy comes from a family well known to the police.
He is a ward of the minister and regularly runs away from foster homes, group homes or youth facilities where he has been placed, according to a court report referred to during a sentencing hearing Thursday.
Details of the report were not explicitly stated but there were references to violence, alcohol and drug abuse, and suggestions of neglect. The boy was convicted of possession of cocaine when he was 12. His mother was once caught bringing drugs to him when he was in custody.
"The incident and his background paint a really desperate picture of his upbringing," said defence lawyer Kevin Hill.
"I can't begin to put myself in your shoes for the first 14 years of your life," Labach said.
"When I read the reports, I feel sorry for you and I wish there was some way we as a society could make sure young people were not put in that situation," Labach said.
"Young people rely on their parents to raise them, teach them right and wrong, manners, the appropriate way to behave in society.
"Your parents have failed you in this regard. I should be sentencing your parents for some time for how they dropped the ball. They're a big part of the reason you are where you are today," he said.
No family members were present but it was later discovered the mother had arrived late and waited in the wrong courtroom for her son's hearing.
via: yahoo
