A youth convicted in the June 2012 killing of some cattle west of Edmonton learned his fate Friday.
The teenaged boy was handed a sentence comprised of 150 days each of closed custody, open custody, and supervised custody, followed by six months of probation.
The sentence includes time already served, meaning the teen will serve another 19 days behind bars before moving into open custody in a half-way house-like setting.
The youth and another teen, Julian Bliss, 18, both faced a total of 28 charges laid in connection to a shooting that left some cattle dead, and left a horse suffering from severe injuries that eventually led to the animal being put down.
Court heard details of the events of the June, 2012 evening Friday – how the youth drove through Parkland County, all while under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Three cattle – two cows and a calf – died that night, they were all owned by Kassidy Thordarson, who had been raising the animals as part of a 4-H project.
Thordarson’s parents talked to CTV News about how their daughter handled the deaths of her livestock.
“She was sick, she lost a lot of weight, we basically had to ship her off to B.C. with my sister and my mom for a while because she just couldn’t even go out to feed her cows,” Lainie Thordarson said.
In court Friday, the youth, who cannot be named, apologized to the family in court – an apology Wade Thordarson was not sure of.
“I don’t know how sincere it was, if it was sincere great, but is it just to make himself look good before the judge? I don’t know,” Thordarson said.
The Crown Prosecutor Jon Werbicki told CTV News he was satisfied with the sentence, which also came with a 10-year ban on owning a firearm.
“Ten years is a good start, don’t forget if there are major breaches to this sentence we might ask that the court collapse the sentence and we re-sentence him,” Werbicki said.
Bliss is expected to appear in court in June.
With files from Amanda Anderson
