Convicted of Manslaughter Appeals Sentence

[Bsuds]

Sounds like the brother should be in there too.

[W105]

http://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/10 ... in-custody

http://www.castanet.net/news/BC/102908/ ... -jail-time

I say a big Bravo and about time...

[grammafreddy]

[goose]

Agreed!!! Maybe someday she will figure life out.

[Silverstarqueen]

How can a convicted killer "move forward" when they haven't even admitted to their criime, or shown any remorse whatsoever for taking a life? The continued drugs, alcohol, and carrying on, while under supervision just shows they had problems and continue to in that department and can't just pretend sweet normal person only got in trouble due to the actions of others.Now an adult, time to start taking some responsibility for past and present actions. Oh, it must be the encarceration that made them do it.

"Figure life out", she took a young life. She needs to figure that out first.

[goose]

That's exactly what I meant. What a mess......

[Walking Wounded]

Lets just hope it's a trend that judges continue in the future.

[the truth]

Wow. Reading the article for the previous post this girl is headed for more trouble. A "white powder and a straw" seems to be a very good reason to get this girl some help. Seems she is not taking her incarceration very seriously.

this just shows that she does not give a crap about what she did.people have come on here saying she is not a bad person,bla,bla bla
really???????

[the truth]

Sounds like the brother should be in there too.

just a matter of time...

[the truth]

quote="the truth"]

Wow. Reading the article for the previous post this girl is headed for more trouble. A "white powder and a straw" seems to be a very good reason to get this girl some help. Seems she is not taking her incarceration very seriously.

this just shows that she does not give a crap about what she did.people have come on here saying she is not a bad person,bla,bla bla
really???????[/quote]

and she only got nine months,for killing a human being.the judge should of being thrown in jail with her ,to give her so little time

[WTTG]

well, if the friends and relatives of the victim don't take away any life lessons from this case, perhaps the convicted will. . . .

. . . Oh, it must be the encarceration that made them do it. . . .

Fine print from the probation officer report:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE2X_2apX-I&feature=player_embedded

0:42 “. . . she has struggled in custody . . .. She did well at first, and throughout has . . . as many strengths, including determination, and work ethic.”

She got a three year sentence--the maximum for youths. Nine months in the facility and 27 months community under conditions. Perhaps adjustments can made within that to help bring her around to where it looks like she may have been in the beginning.

And, I sure hope somebody is dealing with the brother for his sake.

[WTTG]

Oh, and there's this article from before this thread. I think it's well worth having a read, if people have the time.

What we can learn from the Ashlee Hyatt tragedy

John Sleeper

*bleep* Multimedia

http://*bleep*.ca/newsitem/what-we-can-learn-from-the-ashlee-hyatt-tragedy/it226

November 23, 2012 - 11:37 AM

Fred Kesler strolls through his neighbourhood on Peachland's San Clemente Ave., mere metres from the spot where 16-year-old Ashlee Hyatt was stabbed by a friend and bled to death nearly 1 1/2 years before.

A jury ruled Sunday that Hyatt died of a wound from a knife swung by a friend. Kesler couldn't help but remember the days when he taught school.

"The biggest weapon kids brought to school then were their knuckles," he says. "If they needed the next biggest weapon, they'd bring their friends. Things have changed now, I think."

The tragedy of Ashlee Hyatt's death is surrounded in the facts of that June night when and where she died. Two lawyers and a judge with all the facts will determine the degree of culpability. But while the court narrows its focus, we are all left with greater, more complex questions; an invitation, should we accept it, to have this conversation among youth, between parents and their children and parents to parents about how it got that far.

This wasn't gangland, it was Peachland. Two local girls—friends—at a party. One now dead, one now a killer.

Hyatt wasn't simply stabbed by a girl with a knife. Backwards in time from that moment, hundreds of decisions were made in a situation any young person could find themselves in. Too much alcohol, even among friends. Tensions rise. Sides are taken. Violence looms. Then what? Run? Fight? Get help? Even the odds with a knife?

Sarah MacKinnon is director for Kelowna's Downtown Youth Centre which works with high-risk youths. She can't speak to this case in particular, few can. But the pattern is there. The nature of violence itself, she says, is that it can happen in the blink of an eye and be fuelled by sudden emotion, booze or drugs and perhaps seated on a more foundational level. Childhood factors, such as physical or emotional trauma in the family home that can leave us without the necessary tools to appropriately respond to a given challenge.

"When tempers flare and things get heated and escalate and get out of hand, are you surprised in that situation that somebody might die? Probably not," she says. "It can happen very quickly and really easily, whether someone is using their knuckles or using a weapon. Once you're in that mindset, it's really hard to bring them down, to pull them back, to stop that escalation once it's been put in motion."

And perhaps too late. Even if it was simply intended to scare her opponents, an escalation in arms invites an escalation in consequences.

The scene on June 2, 2010 was an unsupervised party in which some teens, notably the one who was later convicted (she cannot be named by a court order), drank several shots of whisky from the bottle beforehand and continued drinking in the same manner at the party. A witness, Michael Baxter, said the girl was "super drunk" shortly before the incident. It was a recipe for poor decisions.

"It causes our inhibitions to be lowered," said Amanda Donaldson, a mental health clinician with the Downtown Youth Centre. "It causes our reactions to emotional situations to be not as astute as they would be. I would argue that it is a contributing factor, but not everyone who drinks becomes violent."

Added to that was the confrontation in which Hyatt and two others, according to testimony, were aggressively name-calling toward the convicted girl. The girl, upset that a boyfriend refused to talk to her about the kissing incident, was physically separated from him and he warned her to stay away. Later, the girl said she felt "ganged up on" and found herself fighting with Hyatt and one other girl.

So the situation was one of raw emotion, exacerbated by alcohol. But how does it jump to wielding a weapon? How does one make that decision? Is it the naivety of youth? Perhaps, but in Donaldson's experience, the answer may lay in the foundation of childhood. We learn by watching others. And if we see violence, we may repeat it.

"I see a lot of trauma," Donaldson says. "Lots of family history or some family history of substance abuse. Family breakdown. Poverty. Employment issues with parents trickling down to their kids, like the lack of education sometimes. We talk about societal oppressors. That goes with criminal behaviour, drug and alcohol abuse, family breakdown, trauma and abuse. Those are all things that impact that child growing up in the environment — the ability to adapt and function and cope."

Donaldson said a healthy, loving family is essential in a child's development and influences much about the way a child will react to conflict later in life. Trouble is, the same principle applies in reverse to parents who grew up the same way, becoming intergenerational. That's where the Downtown Youth Centre comes in; an institution to provide a more healthy environment and role models who understand, who can educate young people on the choices they make and the ultimate consequences.

"We talk a lot about demonstrating to the youth that we can go through conflict with each other and with them in a successful way and it will all turn out OK in the end without anyone having to have broken the relationship or hurt each other," says MacKinnon.

"We can mess up and get through that."

Just not this case, not for Ashlee, not for her killer, not with the consequences of escalation, however foreseeable it should have been.

[Catz]

Very good article. Thank you.

[WTTG]

You’re welcome, but for sure more recognition goes to the people I’ve gone back and highlighted in the text. I think much of what the professionals say supports what some of us who have been following this story have been arguing here over numerous threads for a long-long time (you know who you are, and thank goodness the media finally gave us a reference). If you follow the link there's contact information for the author.

[two_shoes1mit]

Re: Convicted of Manslaughter Appeals Sentence

Postby TazzTheCat » Jun 4th, 2013, 8:15 am

More specifics(found on the YCJA site).......The YCJA recognizes that in most cases the young offender will be out in society some time in the near future, whether that be 9 months or 5 years. And the basis of the act is to rehabilitate and reintegrate the youth back into society with some tools to become a pro-social member of society.

Now some people seem to be of the mindset that jail and only jail can 'teach a lesson' to the young person. My concern is that these people cant (don't want to) seem to understand that if we do not help these kids, they will continue to live lives full of crime.

I don't believe for one second that this girl is in any way shape or form a kid that was prone to this behavior, or will re offend. Her psych tests (well the parts that we heard in court, were of a happy, sporty kid from a loving and in-tune family)
The apology her mother gave in court was described by the judge as eloquent and with not a hint of excuse in it. Given the lengthy testing that we heard was given to this girl and her family, and the fact that not one Dr recommended jail be the best option, I can certainly see why this girl is appealing her sentence.I think this kid got caught up with a bunch of losers and made a series of bad choices that intimately contributed to this tragedy, and I certainly do believe there has to be consequences for that. I just don't think jail is the best form of punishment. Maybe there is some program out there that would be better suited. Geez in this day and age, one would hope there are programs/alternatives that would be better suited to situations such as this....

One thing I have not mentioned on this forum is that the one of the investigators on this case was in court each and every day, listening to the testimony and still no other charges to the others involved have come to light...I find this unbelievable.
Then I hear the banter on the news from Charrie Hyatt about this being aimed at her and how dare this girl appeal her chincy 9 month sentence and what slap in the face this is, then I see on FB her posting pictures of herself and both 'hostesses' and their mother sitting on Ashlee's bench. Then later on in that day, the hostess posts pictures of herself drinking Budweiser at Ashlee's bench. I think that both of these situations are a SLAP in the face to Ashlee....[quote][/quote]

Taz the Cat: Please provide some new comments based on the above.

Question still remains: why was the hostess not charges with some responsibility in providing alcohol to minors at her residence? This story is so tragic and didn't need to have the outcome it did. In view of the appeal and results of that appeal its obvious that justice was not served.

What will become of this young, unnamed offender once she is released - unremorseful, likely un-rehabilitated back into society? Clearly her upbringing has failed her, the system has failed her - what will be the consequences of her violating release conditions?

I am not minimizing what happened to Ashlee in the least, but there is little we can do for her at this point except honor the fact that she did not have to die, that we can improve on the circumstances that led to her murder - and I don't see any of that happening - yet.

We owe it to her and to all the other young ladies whom we would not want, to share the same fate.
There is plenty enough blame to be spread around, and so it should be, at the very least to make some effort to learn from the past. With people so quick to evade responsibility for their involvement, whether it be the behavior of their children, their parenting skills, or providing alcohol to minors in their home - the law must step in to hold them accountable because somehow they do not see the connection or the consequences.