The last of the teenage girls to face trial in the swarming death of Kenneth Lee has pleaded guilty to manslaughter, ending any future prosecution in the case.
The final of eight girls entered her plea in Superior Court on MondayÌýmorning with her trial previously set to begin the same day. She will have a sentencing hearing next month.
The plea marks the end of the Crown’s prosecution against all eight girls, who were first arrested in December 2022 and each charged with second-degree murder in an extremely rare case of teenage girls accused of a group homicide.
The charge of manslaughter is the lowest form of homicide, where someone’s actions, while not intentional, caused a person’s death. Second-degree murder requires the killing to be intentional but not premeditated.
Lee, 59, was visiting the parkette with a friend, who was staying at a nearby temporary hotel shelter when their paths crossed with the girls — who had been drinking and smoking weed at Yorkdale mall with a larger group of teens before some decided to travel downtown on the subway, accosting other passengers as they went. Some of the girls saw Lee’s friend had a bottle of liquor and one took the bottle. When Lee — who was homeless at the time — intervened moments later, the girls swarmed him and at least one of them stabbed him.Ìý
That stabbing has been pinned on one of the girls whose trial spanned several weeks earlier this year. A decision in her case is scheduled for May 30.
The girl who pleaded guilty Monday participated in kicking, punching and filming a bloodied Lee, according to an agreed statement of facts read in court. The girl did not have a knife during the attack and was not responsible for stabbing him, the statement said.Ìý
”(The girl) knew that the risk of bodily harm was an objectively foreseeable consequence of the group assault,” the statement said. “His bloodied face was clearly observable.”
The girl’s plea also seemingly solved a mystery of what happened to a blue-hued knife several of the girls were seen holding in CCTV videos on the subway platform at Yorkdale as they appeared to playfully chase each other before travelling downtown and eventually attacking Lee.
Chris Morris, the girl’s criminal defence lawyer, added to the statement, saying his client got the knife from one of the other girls “because she didn’t want anything dangerous to happen” and threw it onto the tracks. The Crown said they couldn’t confirm or contest those facts but agreed they could be relied on at sentencing.
The issue of whether one of the girls had a knife when they encountered Lee dominated the trial of the girl the Crown alleged to be the stabber.
The Crown focused on a surveillance video taken after the attack on Lee where they argued one of the girls could be seen dropping an object with a distinctive blue end and putting it in her pocket. However, her defence team showed through additional police body-worn camera footage that the object the girl had dropped and recovered was a Sharpie marker with a blue cap.
Girls plead guilty to lesser charges
Since their arrest, the girls, one by one,Ìýentered guilty pleas to lesser chargesÌý— both in the lower Ontario Court of Justice where the case began and in Superior Court where a trial was split in two, some opting to face a jury and others a judge alone.
None of the girls can be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, which, as a core principle, promotes rehabilitation for youth charged with criminal offences.
The Star has been covering the girl swarm case since pc28¹ÙÍøpolice announced chargesÌýand has been present at dozens of court appearances as the girls each received bail, watchedÌýas some were re-arrested on new offences,Ìýsat through a preliminary hearing and witnessed each pleading.
This is how the court resolved or is resolving each of their cases, in the order they were dealt with:
- Girl 1: Was 13 in December 2022. Pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the Ontario Court of Justice on May 30, 2024 ahead of trial. SentencedÌýto 21 months probation on Oct. 1, 2024.
- Girl 2: Was 13. Pleaded guilty toÌýassault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harmÌýin the Ontario Court of Justice on June 4, 2024 ahead of trial. Sentenced to 12 months probation on Sept. 24, 2024.
- Girl 3: Was 13. Pleaded guilty to manslaughterÌýin the Ontario Court of Justice on June 17, 2024 ahead of trial. Sentenced to 15 months probation on Sept. 16, 2024.
- Girl 4: Was 14. Pleaded guilty to manslaughterÌýin the Ontario Court of Justice on June 24, 2024 ahead of trial. Sentenced to 24 months probation on Sept. 24, 2024.
- Girl 5:ÌýWas 16. Trial for second-degree murder began Feb. 3. Pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Feb. 18, after evidence phase of trial was concluded. Set to be sentenced May 16.
- Girl 6: Was 16. Pleaded guilty to assaultÌýon April 4, ahead of trial. Scheduled to be sentenced on May 6.
- Girl 7: Was 14. Pleaded guilty to manslaughter on May 5, the day trial was set to begin. Has yet to be sentenced.
- Girl 8: Was 14. Trial for second-degree murder began Feb. 3. Pleaded guilty to manslaughter at the outset of the trial, but plea was rejected by Crown. Scheduled for judgment on May 30.
Lee’s family ‘devastated’
Crown attorney Mary Humphrey read victim impact statements from Lee’s sister and brother-in-law on Monday, written last year, saying they continue to be “devastated” by Lee’s death.
“The realization that I will never be able to see my brother’s face, hear his voice or listen to one of his many corny jokes is heart-wrenching,” his sister Helen Shum, wrote, describing how she struggles to sleep and that her mother was “nothing more than an empty shell” after her only son’s death.
“He was loved.”
Shum wrote that her brother, the eldest in a Chinese family, was always overprotected and leaving his family’s home late in life, was his first bout of true independence.Ìý
He was close with his family, she said, celebrating birthdays and holidays together. He was the kind of uncle to her kids who loved sharing pizza, chocolate milkÌý“and a good game of monopoly.”
“The pain of his loss is excruciating.”
Lee’s nieces and nephew were too distraught to write a victim impact statement, Eric Shum, Lee’s brother-in-law, wrote in his statement of his kids.
Lee did not do drugs or drink, Shum wrote, though he was dealing with “some issues,” which Shum did not elaborate on, and stubbornly wanted to resolve them.
At a memorial held at the shelter where Lee had been staying, Shum described how other residents and staff described him as caring and helpful — acting as a mentor to some.
“They say time will heal. It has not,” Shum wrote. “The distress we have experienced is immeasurable and continues to haunt us every day.”
Girls routinely strip searchedÌý
Hanging over the cases against each girl was the discovery during the bail phase of their prosecution that all of them had been routinely strip searched in the provincial detention centres where they were held.
The province contracts the operations of many of its youth detention and custody facilities to third-party agencies.
While provincial policies permit the routine searches — without there needing to be any specific suspicion a youth is concealing contraband — the girls’ case revealed they were also made to strip completely naked, against ministry policy.
Ontario CourtÌýJustice David Rose heard from lawyers for the first four girls to plead guilty that their rights in custody had been violated.
In the case of two of those girls, the lawyers argued the murder charge against them should be thrown out. Though he rejected that option, Rose found their Charter rights had been infringed, calling their treatment “troubling.”
Two other girls were found guilty of different forms of assault and were not sentenced for Lee’s death.
The final girl went to trial for second-degree murder in front of Justice Philip Campbell in Superior Court. She pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but the Crown did not accept that plea and the trial went ahead. A decision in that case is scheduled for May 30.
The lawyers of the girls previously facing trial in Superior Court also argued their charges should be thrown out over the strip searching. The arguments took place ahead of trial for two of the girls and the details were under a publication ban while a jury trial was still scheduled for the other two girls.
Several current and former youth workers testified as part of the Charter challenge, employees whose organizations are contracted by the province to provide youth detention services.
Campbell, with court time at a premium, ruled to dismiss the stay but has yet to provide reasons for his decision.
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