I actually thought the 12 year old might get a break here...I think she is the youngest person in Canada to ever be convicted of this. I just find it hard to believe that her parents' disapproval, internet restrictions and more - could have turned so disastrous.
I just can't believe it was so much her fault when she was hanging out with a 23-year old...
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Medicine Hat girl guilty of first-degree murder
Last Updated: Monday, July 9, 2007 | 5:55 PM MT
CBC News
A 13-year-old Alberta girl has been found guilty of first-degree murder in the killings of her parents and younger brother.
The jury in Medicine Hat handed down its decision on Monday after less than a day of deliberations in the Court of Queen's Bench.
The girl faces a maximum sentence of up to six years in custody followed by up to four years supervision in the community.
The girl, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was accused of killing her parents and her eight-year-old brother on April 23, 2006, when she was just 12.
During the trial, which began June 4, the girl testified that her 23-year-old boyfriend, Jeremy Steinke, broke into her Medicine Hat home and attacked and killed her mother and father.
The girl testified that Steinke then ordered her to stab her brother, which she did once, before Steinke [killed him].
The girl testified she was in a "zombie" state at the time and unable to stop her boyfriend, or go for help.
She admitted in court that she and her boyfriend used to talk about killing her parents prior to the slayings, but she insisted she was only joking at the time.
Steinke, now 24, is also charged with first-degree murder in the deaths, but has yet to enter a plea and does not have a trial date set.
EARLIER REPORT:
Earlier in her testimony, she said she and Steinke had "hypothetical" conversations about killing her parents.
She said they used to talk late at night about how much she hated her parents, who didn't approve of their relationship.
She said they discussed possible ways of killing them, including making it look like a murder-suicide or hitting them on the head while they slept and then burning their house down. She said the plans included killing her brother because he was too sensitive to be an orphan.
But the girl said she never took the conversations seriously and considered them no big deal because all of her friends talked like that. She called it "stupid talk."
"This wasn't unusual for my group of friends — talking about killing people."
The accused said that a week before the killings she snuck out of the house and went with Steinke back to his trailer where they had sex. She said they had sex again in a friend's apartment after the killings, only hours before her family's bodies were discovered by her brother's friend.
"I loved him so much. I thought it would bring us closer together," she said, when asked why she would have sex when she was just 12 years old.
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