One of two teen girls on trial for murder in the swarming death of Kenneth Lee was found guilty of manslaughter after entering a surprise guilty plea on Tuesday.
The plea came after eight days of evidence in the case against the two girls charged with second-degree murder in the death of 59-year-old Lee, who was swarmed and beaten outside Union Station in December 2022.
In court on Tuesday, Crown Mary Humphrey said that after assessing the strength of the evidence, the prosecution has accepted the girl’s plea to the lesser charge.
The Crown read from an agreed statement of facts saying the girl who pleaded guilty had been observing for much of the attack and was at times trying to get the other girls to stop and leave the area. But for a 23-second period, the girl was a “joint participant” in a group assault that resulted in Lee’s death, the statement said.
After other girls swung at or hit Lee with a bag of ice, Lee picked up the bag and — likely making the wrong assumption that she was the one who had been hitting him, the statement said — hit the girl who pleaded guilty with the bag.
The girl, who was 16 at the time, responded by picking up an orange traffic pylon and throwing it at Lee’s head, according to the statement and video of the attack played in court during the trial.
Then, during this “final wave” of the attack, the girl “picked up a pylon and walked towards Mr. Lee,” the statement said, raising the pylon over her head and hitting him three times with it.
The girl did not have a knife or any other weapon and at no point intended to kill Lee, the statement said.
The statement also said the girl was with the group who travelled by subway from Yorkdale station towards Union and that she was drinking Crown Royal up until St. George subway station and smoking marijuana throughout the evening.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled in April.
The second girl, whom the Crown alleges is responsible for fatally stabbing Lee, also entered a guilty plea of manslaughter at the outset of the hearing. The Crown rejected that plea and the case against her on the second-degree murder charge continues Tuesday.
Neither girl can be identified under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Eight teen girls, aged 13 to 16, were originally charged in Lee’s death. Surveillance video captured him being swarmed and beaten in a downtown parkette near Union Station. Lee was homeless at the time and was visiting a friend staying in a nearby temporary shelter.
Five of the eight girls have now pleaded guilty to lesser charges — four to manslaughter and one to assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm. Four were previously sentenced and are all on probation.
Two other girls face a jury trial in May.
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