Like most people watching the court proceedings for Kimberly ProctorB次元官网网址檚 young murderers, it was my first time in a sentencing hearing for such a serious crime.
Extensive court reporting is usually beyond the scope of a community newspaper such as the one youB次元官网网址檙e reading. Our reporters take turns covering crimes that rarely pull us into the courthouse.
Personally, I can count on my fingers the number of times my journalism career has brought me into a courtroom. At my previous newspaper job, I covered a brief sentencing on a case where a guy stole a cop car and had to serve weekends in jail for it, as well as some of the pre-trial dates for a schizophrenic woman who killed a 12-year-old autistic boy. She was eventually deemed mentally unfit to stand trial.
Neither case made me feel confident walking into the courthouse to begin covering what I expected to be a two-week sentencing hearing for ProctorB次元官网网址檚 killers.
I could hardly sleep the night before and didnB次元官网网址檛 eat anything the morning of. I can only imagine how much worse the people in that room, especially those who knew the victim personally, must have felt.
ProctorB次元官网网址檚 family B次元官网网址� her mother, father, grandparents and aunts B次元官网网址� filled the front row. I squeezed between one of the victimB次元官网网址檚 high school friends and a television reporter. The benches were packed to capacity.
I knew from a co-worker who covered the case until the teensB次元官网网址� guilty pleas that there would be a lot of details too graphic to print in the newspaper. Indeed, what the court heard with regard to what the teens did to ProctorB次元官网网址檚 body post-mortem turned my nervous insomnia into terrible nightmares.
It was truly a relief that the hearing lasted only two days.
The CrownB次元官网网址檚 case for sentencing the youth as adults relied on multiple experts finding that the two are of significant risk to reoffend.
The defence had no evidence to the contrary and didnB次元官网网址檛 oppose the adult sentence for either teen. When given a chance to speak for themselves, the older said nothing, while the younger offered a three-page letter written the night before, in which he claimed to feel remorse and a willingness to change.
ItB次元官网网址檚 now up to a judge to decide their fate on Monday.
Based on previous case law and what the court heard from Crown prosecutors, itB次元官网网址檚 unlikely the judge would have any reason to give the teens youth sentences.
But even being sentenced as adults to life in prison, the fact theyB次元官网网址檙e still teenagers means theyB次元官网网址檇 be eligible for parole after 10 years rather than 25.
In either case, the killers, if we believe in the philosophy of our correctional system, could seek parole while theyB次元官网网址檙e still in their 20s. A life sentence doesnB次元官网网址檛 guarantee a lifetime spent behind bars.
But as ProctorB次元官网网址檚 father pointed out in his victim impact statement to the court, itB次元官网网址檚 the victim and her family who will pay the harshest punishment for the crime. Kimberly received the death penalty. Her loved ones will serve a true life sentence without her.
No matter how long her killers spend in prison, perhaps getting free education and learning to understand the gravity of their crimes, it wonB次元官网网址檛 bring the 18-year-old back.
Hearing the family read their statements one by one was the hardest thing IB次元官网网址檝e done in the course of my career thus far. The ink in my note pad is smeared with tears. But writing is my therapy and after my stories are published I can rip out those pages and let the details drift from my mind.
I know the Proctors, however, will never forget. And I can only hope that this newspaper will never again need to carry reports of such horrific and senseless crimes.
reporter@goldstreamgazette.com
Sam Van Schie is a reporter at the Goldstream B次元官网网址 Gazette.
