EDSON — Crown and defence lawyers are set to argue parole eligibility for an Alberta man who admitted to strangling and slashing the throat of a 14-year-old girl.
Ross Edward Kleman is facing sentencing after pleading guilty in April to second-degree murder in the death of Emily Stauffer.
A second-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.
Kleman, who is 44, had originally pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the September 2008 slaying in Edson.
Witnesses testified that they saw a man attack the teen as she was walking along a wooded path in the community, about 200 kilometres west of Edmonton.
Kleman also pleaded guilty to sexually touching another female under the age of 16 in 2008.