A judge has found a teen girl not guilty of second-degree murder in the fatal swarming attack on a homeless Toronto man – but guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Kenneth Lee is shown in a Toronto Police Service handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Toronto Police Service **MANDATORY CREDIT**HO/The Canadian Press
Ontario Superior Court Justice Philip Campbell says he wasn’t convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the girl had the state of mind required for murder in the 2022 attack on Kenneth Lee.
The girl, who was 14 at the time of the attack, had tried to plead guilty to manslaughter at the start of her murder trial, but the Crown rejected that plea.
Prosecutors had alleged that the girl was the one who inflicted Lee’s fatal wound by stabbing the 59-year-old with a knife or a small pair of scissors during the December 2022 attack.
No knife was ever recovered as part of the investigation, the trial heard, and the defence said the girl didn’t have a knife at any point that night.
Security footage of the swarming attack at a downtown Toronto parkette was central to the trial – but the girl’s defence lawyer argued it’s impossible to tell from the video who stabbed Lee and when.
The Crown said in its closing submissions that at two points, the girl can be seen in the video extending her hand in a stabbing motion that correlates with the cuts on Lee’s body.
When she was arrested, the girl was found with two small pairs of scissors and some tweezers, court heard.
The forensic pathologist who examined Lee’s body testified he died from hemorrhagic shock after he was stabbed in the heart. He also had a smaller, non-fatal stab wound near his armpit and an assortment of bruises, court heard.
The pathologist testified it was unlikely that the scissors found with the girl would have caused the wound that killed Lee.
The Crown argued the girl had the opportunity to get rid of a knife after leaving the parkette in moments that were not caught on surveillance video.
Lee was living in the city’s shelter system and was at the parkette near Toronto’s Union station with a friend when they encountered the group. He died in the early hours of Dec. 18, 2022, after undergoing emergency surgery at St. Michael’s Hospital, court has heard.
After Lee’s death, police arrested eight girls between the ages of 13 and 16 in the case and charged them with second-degree murder, but seven of them have since pleaded guilty to lesser charges.
Five have pleaded guilty to manslaughter, one to assault and one to assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm.
