A Dartmouth teenager convicted of shooting and killing Joseph Cameron in March 2016 has received the maximum youth sentence for first-degree murder.
The 19-year-old man, who was 17 at the time of the slaying, was sentenced Tuesday in Halifax youth court. His identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Judge Elizabeth Buckle, who earlier this month dismissed the Crown’s application for an adult sentence, accepted a joint recommendation from lawyers for a 10-year term, consisting of six years in custody and four years of strict supervision in thecommunity.
“I’m satisfied that, given the seriousness of the offence here, the maximum sentence is necessary in order to hold (the young offender) accountable for his actions, and it would be a fair and proportionate sentence in all the circumstances,” Buckle said.
The judge gave the young man enhanced credit for the almost 22 months he has been behind bars,leaving him with about 40 months to serve in custody.
The offender has been approved for the province’s Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision Program, which offers up to $100,000 a year in specialized therapy for a high-risk, high-need youth.
Buckle said she agreed with the Crown and the defence that the IRCS sentence “would be the best means to accomplish rehabilitation and eventual successful reintegration” into the community.
The judge also ordered the teen to provide a DNA sample for a national databank and prohibited him from possessing weapons for 10 years after his release from custody.
“You’ve been given an opportunity,” Buckle told him. “Now it’s up to you what you do with it. Good luck.”
The offender will remain at the Nova Scotia Youth Facility in Waterville until he turns 20 next January. Then he will likely be transferred to an adult facility.
He will return to court a year from now so the judge can be updated on the progress of his treatment.
Police responded to a report of shots fired on Mount Edward Road in Dartmouth on March 29, 2016, at about 5:20 a.m. Officers found Cameron, 20, of Dartmouth, dead on a sidewalk. He was face down, with a large pool of blood around his head.
Cameron had gunshot wounds to his chest and head. One of the bullets had exited his body and lodged in the siding of a house across the street.
The teen was found guilty of first-degree murder last summer following a trial in youth court.
In January, a 17-year-old boy was sentenced to seven years of custody and supervision after pleading guilty to second-degree murder for his involvement in the killing.
At trial, Judge Anne Derrick accepted the younger teen’s testimony that he watched from the driver’s seat of a stolen vehicle as his older acquaintance got out and shot Cameron twice at close range with a sawed-off, 30-30 rifle.
According to the evidence, Cameron spent the last hours of his life driving around metro in the vehicle with as many as four teenagers. Most of them belonged to a group called the Jack Boys, which committed robberies to get money, often targeting drug dealers.
The younger teen told the court the accused took a disliking to Cameron and, after Cameron decided to walk home on his own, talked about wanting to kill him.
He said he pulled the vehicle into a driveway behind Cameron and witnessed the killing from a distance of about three metres.
Buckle took over the sentencing of the older teen after Derrick was appointed to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal.
