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Friday, March 1, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916

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Doug Leslie, father of Loren Leslie, speaks to the media after the verdict in the Cody Legebokoff murder trial in Sept. 11, 2014. Leslie said he was dumbfounded when he heard his daughter’s killer was moved to a medium-security prison.

Legebokoff move raises ire of MPs, victims families Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca Cariboo-Prince George MP Todd Doherty wants the federal government to take a second look at a Corrections Canada decision to transfer convicted serial killer Cody Legebokoff to a medium security prison. Doherty said he raised the issue this week in the House of Commons when he “specifically challenged” federal public safety ministry Ralph Goodale to review the transfer, which he said occurred on Jan. 23. Sentenced in September 2014 to life in prison without eligibility to apply for parole for 25 years for the murders of three women and a teenage girl, Legebokoff had been serving his time in a maximum security facility. In assessing an innmate’s security level, Corrections Canada considers three main criteria for assessing an inmate’s security level – how the offender will adjust to the institution, the risk of escape and public safety – but Doherty said the agency is also obligated to consider additional factors, particularly the seriousness of the offence. “I don’t want to run the flag up and set ourselves on fire for political wins,” Doherty said. “This wrong and somebody made a mis-

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take. They didn’t do it maliciously, they followed their protocol, I believe, but I believe the protocol is flawed.” Citing B.C. Supreme Court Justice Glen Parrett’s sentencing decision on the matter, Doherty said Legebokoff not only committed the murders but was “looking to destroy these four women.” “He has shown no remorse, he has accepted no responsibility on this and, in Justice Parrett’s words, he should never, ever walk amongst us again.” The news has not sat well with the families of the four victims – Stacey Stuchenko, 35, Natasha Montgomery, 24, Cynthia Maas,

35, and Loren Leslie, 15. On her Facebook page, Louanne Montgomery, the mother of Natasha Montgomery, says Legebokoff will take the opportunity to escape and kill again. “Don’t be fooled,” she says. Doug Leslie, the father of Loren Leslie, said he was dumbfounded when told the news. “He should never be out of that little box, ever,” Leslie said. Only two of the families were notified of the transfer, although victims families are required to register with Corrections Canada to receive notifications. In an email, Corrections Canada spokesperson Esther Mailhot

declined to speak specifically to Legebokoff’s case, citing privacy law, but said in general inmates are “thoroughly evaluated and placed in facilities that can assure their security and meet their program needs.” “Rehabilitative efforts, leading to a gradual and controlled release, have proven to be a better way of protecting the public than keeping offenders in maximum security institutions to the end of their sentence, and then releasing them into society without supervision,” Mailhot added. She said a medium-security institution has the same security safeguards as maximum-security,

but allows for more interaction among offenders. Legebokoff can begin to apply for parole on Nov. 27, 2035, 25 years after he was first arrested. He will be 45 years old at that time. Moreover, he will be eligible for day parole after 22 years and, because he was arrested before the Conservative government eliminated the so-called “faint hope” provision, Legebokoff can still apply after 15 years for a reduction in the wait. But the key word in all of this is “eligible.” Legebokoff must still apply for early release and the parole board can still decide to keep him locked up.

Five years urged for near-fatal stabbing Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff Crown counsel is seeking five years in prison for a man who stabbed and nearly killed his boyfriend during an argument while the two were driving to Prince George. Jesse Cote has remained in custody since the March 1, 2018 incident on Highway 97 at Salmon Valley, in which the victim was able to wave down a passing vehicle and get the occupants to call for help. Bleeding profusely from around the ear, the victim was taken to hospital by ambulance. Not

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sure he would survive, an RCMP officer accompanied him on the ride and tried to get what information he could while the victim remained conscious. Because his blood pressure was so low, paramedics had to drill a hole in a leg bone to administer medication and by the time they arrived at University Hospital of Northern B.C., he had lost about two litres of blood. It appeared he had been stabbed on the side of head just behind the ear but in order to determine the exact spot of the wound, physicians elected to use a CT scan. While inside the

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machine, his cartoroid in the side of his neck burst spraying blood around the inside of the machine and he had to go through emergency surgery that saved his life. Cote, meanwhile, had waited in the car at it sat stuck in the snow on the side of the road. Police arrived to find his hands covered in blood. Blood was also found all over his clothes and throughout the car. The victim told police they had been arguing while driving to Prince George. Things escalated after they had switched seats and the man was stabbed after he had got behind the wheel.

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The two had been using drugs over the days before. Cote said he had been using heroin regularly and was in a poor mood that morning after he had consumed methamphetamine and alcohol the night before. There was also a concern Cote suffers from a form of psychosis. He was on bail for a prior incident that involved the victim and an axe and while he was eventually issued a conditional discharge, Crown argued the incident was similar to the stabbing. One of the conditions of the bail was that he get a psychological assessment but Cote never

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followed up, the court was told. And when giving interviews to a psychologist and the author of a pre-sentence report, Cote often gave contradictory stories about what happened and about his background while often portraying himself as the victim. In relation to the most recent matter, Cote pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. Less credit for time served, Cote faces another 3 1/2 years in custody if provincial court judge Michael Gray agrees with Crown’s arguments. Defence counsel’s submissions will be heard Friday at the courthouse.

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