SENTENCING HEARING Stefanie Rengel’s brother blames himself
July 14, 2009 in United states by angela
TORONTO • Ian Rengel was home on the day two winters ago that his big sister was lured outside by a teenage boy and stabbed six times to her death. He is 13 years old now, and has demons to spare.
“I blame myself about not going outside,” he said yesterday in a Toronto courtroom. He wore a dark suit; he fought through his tears.
“Not hearing her cry or calling for help. Why didn’t I look out and see her dying in the snow? I could have told her I loved her and that everything was going to be fine if she could just hold on a little longer.”
Ian was speaking at the sentencing hearing of a 17-yearold girl convicted of first-degree murder for ordering her boyfriend to kill 14-year-old Stefanie, someone she had never met.
Court heard that the girl, identified only as M.T. under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, had an obsessive jealousy and that she used the promise of sex as a way to execute her bidding.
She displayed little emotion throughout the trial but cried at the end of yesterday’s proceedings.
Her boyfriend, identified as D.B., pleaded guilty to firstdegree murder in a separate trial.
The Crown is seeking adult sentences for both teenagers.
The victim-impact statements read in court yesterday etched a portrait of the devastation wreaked on a family when a child is murdered: A mother who longs for the pain her daughter felt, a brother who cannot understand the violence his sister endured, a father ruined by the hatred he harbours against the killers, grandparents who ache over all that has been lost.
from:nationalpost
