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Woman who was 12 when helped kill family still making progress: report

Court has been told that a young southern Alberta woman who helped kill three members of her family when she was 12 is sorry for what she did.

MEDICINE HAT — Court has been told that a young southern Alberta woman who helped kill three members of her family when she was 12 is sorry for what she did.

“She continues to express significant remorse for her role in these crimes and the experts consider her remorse to be genuine,” Justice Scott Brooker remarked during the teen’s twice annual sentence review.

The now eighteen-year-old was convicted in 2007 of first-degree murder along with her then-boyfriend, Jeremy Steinke, in the stabbing deaths of her mother, father and little brother.

Crown and defence lawyers met with Brooker in Court of Queen’s Bench in Medicine Hat to review her 10-year rehabilitative sentence.

The twice annual reports have been presented to the court since 2008 but remain sealed from the public.

She has 3 1/2 years remaining on her sentence, which she is serving in the community on release conditions — she is working full time and attending post-secondary classes.

All sides agreed after Monday’s report that the young woman’s progress is positive.

“(The sentence is) working as you intended it to,” Crown lawyer Ramona Robins told Brooker.

Brooker agreed the teen continues to do well in her schooling as well as excelling at her full-time employment.

“She’s responding positively to the treatment and transitional supports that were put in place,” Brooker told the court.

“She is doing well in the gradual process of transitioning into the community, she continues to be under the care of a psychiatrist.

“All I can say is keep up the good work.”

“Thank you,” responded the you woman, who appeared via closed-circuit television from the Calgary Young Offenders Centre. She can’t be identified due to her age at the time of the 2006 murders.

Steinke, who was 23 at the time, is serving a life sentence.