A Calgary youth's lawyer argued Tuesday that the sentence imposed for the fatal stabbing of a teenager exceeded the maximum allowable by law. Defence counsel Connor Sprague told the Alberta Court of Appeal that Justice Eleanor Funk should not have given his client a total term exceeding three years, including pre-trial custody.
The offender, now 18, had already spent 25 months at the Calgary Young Offender Centre before Funk's sentencing decision on Oct. 7. Funk found the youth guilty of manslaughter in the death of 18-year-old Danillo Canales Glenn and ordered him to serve 12 more months in custody, followed by six months under community supervision.
Credit for Pre-Trial Custody
Sprague argued that his client should have received credit for the full 25 months of pre-sentencing custody, meaning the Court of King's Bench exceeded the maximum by seven months. "A day is a day," Sprague said of the remand time. "If the sentence you're imposing, plus the pre-trial credit, exceeds the maximum, you can't do it. Otherwise you have to impose an adult sentence and that was off the table."
Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the maximum sentence for manslaughter is three years, composed of two years of custody and one year under community supervision. Funk ruled the maximum was warranted but only gave the offender credit of 18 months for his pre-sentence custody, resulting in an additional 12 months' custody and six months of supervision.
Crown's Position
Appeal Crown Tom Spark said Funk was entitled to give less than one-for-one credit for remand time. "There's discretion to grant or deny credit," Spark told the appeal judges, adding that the judge could consider whether further detention was necessary for rehabilitation. "We cannot lose sight of what happened in this case. The appellant took a teenager's life. The appellant is in need of serious rehabilitation."
Sprague noted that Crown prosecutor Vicki Faulkner had initially indicated she would seek an adult sentence but later abandoned that application, leaving Funk to sentence the killer as a youth.
Details of the Incident
The offender was 16 when he and his adult brother jumped the boards of an outdoor basketball court on the evening of Sept. 5, 2023, where Canales Glenn and two friends were shooting hoops. One pepper-sprayed the victim while the other stabbed him. The older brother, who cannot be named to protect his sibling's anonymity under the YCJA, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and is awaiting sentencing.
The appeal panel reserved its decision.
