A teenager was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison and five years of conditional supervision for the murder of a Kitchener man.
In March 2010, 49-year-old Larry McDonald was found dead in his Green Valley Drive apartment. He had been stabbed 19 times.
The teen, who cannot be identified, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in April 2012.
Since then, arguments have gone back and forth over whether he should be sentenced as a youth or an adult.
If sentenced as an adult, the teen would have received a life sentence with no chance of parole for seven years.
As a child, his sentence would be much lighter – a maximum of seven years in prison – but still include the three years he has already spent behind bars since his arrest.
The decision to sentence him as a child didn’t sit well with McDonald’s family.
“For the past three years there’s been no closure,” stepdaughter Debra McMillan tells CTV.
“For him to be sentenced as a youth, I don’t feel like the punishment fits the crime.”
Court had heard that McDonald was trying to break up an argument between the teen and his girlfriend when he was stabbed.
