Posted on 06/12/2007 12:53:30 PM PDT by oakcon
MEDICINE HAT, Alta. — A 12-year-old Alberta girl hatched a plot to kill her family and run away with her boyfriend – who was more than a decade her senior – after the girl's distraught parents tried to sever the unseemly relationship, the Crown prosecutor alleged yesterday at the start of the youngster's triple murder trial.
“I hate them so I have this plan,” prosecutor Stephanie Cleary read from a message the girl allegedly sent to her boyfriend on the Internet. “It begins with me killing them and it ends with me living with you.”
A month later, on April 23, 2006, the girl's mother, father, and eight-year-old brother were found stabbed to death in their Medicine Hat home. The next day, the girl was arrested in Leader, Sask. She was found covered by some blankets in the back of a truck with her 23-year-old boyfriend, Jeremy Steinke. With them, Ms. Cleary told the court, was a bag of clothes covered in blood – matching samples taken from the victims – as well as a face mask, knives and a purse containing identification belonging to the girl's mother.
The girl, who is now 13, faces three counts of first-degree murder. So does Mr. Steinke. The girl cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Neither can her family. Wearing a little-girl pony tail and lavender blouse, the teen, known as J.R., was red faced and dabbing at tears after Ms. Cleary outlined her case to a jury of seven men and five women, who were selected Monday.
For the first time, those present in the city's historic Court of Queen's Bench heard gruesome details about what turned the family's comfortable split-level home into a slaughterhouse little more than a year ago. Police officers choked back tears as they recounted the bloodied handprints on the walls and blood-soaked bodies in the house.
Two knives, both with blood on them, one with a bent blade, the other seemingly washed off, were also found in the home. The teen's 48-year-old mother suffered 12 stab wounds, some of them defensive. One hit the aorta, the body's major artery. Wearing only a nightie, she died where she was attacked at the bottom of the stairs leading to the family room in the basement.
The girl's father, a 42-year-old energy industry worker, was stabbed 24 times during an apparent scuffle. He moved about the family room in his underwear before succumbing to his injuries. Both his hands were clenched in fists when he was found, a police office testified Monday, and at least one arm was raised, frozen in death's grip, as if he was still fighting.
The body of the eight-year-old showed signs of asphyxiation, a lack of oxygen due to strangulation. He was also jabbed five times with a knife. One slash to his neck was so deep that it cut through the muscle, larynx, thyroid and jugular. It was that cut that killed him. He suffered one major bloodletting injury before he either moved or was placed on his bed, where he died.
The boy's six-year-old friend from next door came upon the bodies on April 23, 2006, when he went over to see if his friend could come out and play. His mother testified Monday that her son placed his hands and face to a basement window and saw “bodies with blood on them.” She saw the same thing and called 911. The night before, that same young boy was at the home for a barbecue, the last time anyone saw the girl's family alive.
Ms. Cleary said that a few months before the killings, J.R. became involved with Mr. Steinke, a local man who lived in a trailer with his mother.
Mr. Steinke, now 24, has told friends that he is a 300-year-old werewolf, the court heard. The teen, who was in Grade 7 at the time of the killings, posed as an older teenager in Web postings, started hanging around with a different group of friends and began to dress inappropriately at school, Ms. Cleary told the court.
At one point, the teen's dad saw his daughter kissing Mr. Steinke at a punk rock concert. “They took steps to end it,” Ms. Cleary told the court. They grounded the girl and took away her computer privileges. On March 8, 2006, Ms. Cleary said, J.R. professed her love for Mr. Steinke on a Web page.
On March 20, Ms. Cleary said, J.R. sent her boyfriend the message about planning to kill her family. Around the same time, Ms. Cleary said, the girl was telling friends she was “going to kill her parents,” but friends laughed it off.
“Fine,” the girl allegedly replied to them. “Don't believe me.”
Around the time police were searching the crime scene and elsewhere for the girl – initially they feared she was abducted, had run away or was at a friend's and didn't know about the murders – J.R. was seen “making out” with Mr. Steinke and munching on food from Burger King.
“My little brother gargled,” she allegedly said when recounting the murders. Mr. Steinke is among dozens of witnesses whom the Crown plans to call to testify.
Police recovered a picture from J.R.'s locker, which the Crown plans to bring forward as evidence. The image “depicts the killing of her family,” Ms. Cleary said, and the girl's flight from the crime in “Jeremy's truck.” The trial is expected to last five weeks.
There was a 16 year old girl in ID a few years back who murdered her parents point blank with a hunting rifle and followed an elaborate plan to minimize forensic evidence - all so she could run away with her unemployed, drug-dealing much-older boyfriend.
sick
wow...just wow.....
Gee, who ever would have thought a guy like this could be trouble.
how does someone hate their parents that much?
Her name’s Jasmine Richardson, BTW and her pic is on Wikipedia under the “Richardson Murders”.
THESE LAWS, ALL OVER THE US, CANADA & EUROPE, ARE STUPID!........
lemmee see, she’ll plead for mercy because she’s an orphan?.......
Another Vampirefreaks.com connection. That is an evil, evil site, and someone should shut it down.
The more I learn about people, the more I love my animals.
Thank you - could you tell us the victims’ names as well? The Canadian press is insane - are they leaving the victims’ names out of the article because that would identify the killer who is a minor? Isn’t she going to be tried as an adult?
Mrs VS
Marc Richardson (age 42), his wife Debra (age 48), and their son Jacob (age 8)
Sadly she is under 14 and so cannot be. Ridiculous laws, each set is worse than the old.
As a 13 year-old, I don’t believe trying her as an adult is possible under Canadian law. I think that requires that the defendent be at least 15 years old, and even then the possible sentences are limited. Personally, I’m thinking a 13 year-old who takes part in murdering her parents and little brother is seriously lacking some basic human component of her personality, and should probably be institutionalized for a long, long time.
No kidding...looks are certainly deceiving in this case, she looks like the girl next door.
Reminiscent of Caril Ann Fugate.
Dear heavens....
I'm speechless.
Put a bullet in her brain. Now.
This story is uncanny like what occurred to an Idaho couple that my friends knew real well for years. The 16 year old daughter of the couple was convicted of 1st degree murder of the couple two-three years ago. The daughter murdered her parents over their refusal to permit her to be with her older Mexican boyfriend. The daughter never showed any remorse during the trial.
What the hell did the little boy have to do with breaking up her love affair. She needs a bullet .. several bullets.
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