A Quebec youth court has imposed the maximum sentence allowed under the law on a teenage girl for her active role in the contract killing of a 16-year-old boy from Montreal's West Island. The sentence concludes a case that revealed connections to organized crime and a second murder in Ontario.
Judge Imposes Maximum Youth Sentence
On Tuesday, December 16, 2025, at the Valleyfield courthouse, Quebec Court Judge Hugo Rousse sentenced the girl, who was 15 at the time of the crime, to a 10-year sentence. This is the maximum penalty permitted under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The sentence structure includes six years in custody, with seven months subtracted for time already served, followed by four years under strict surveillance conditions in the community.
The judge accepted a joint recommendation from the prosecution and defence. Crown prosecutor Marie-Laurence Hébert-Trudeau and defence lawyer Morgane Laloum had proposed the sentence after the girl pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in August 2025.
Not a Bystander: Active Participation in Murder
While reading his decision, Judge Rousse emphasized the girl's direct involvement. "She was not a passive bystander and she was not the shooter," Rousse stated. However, he declared her a full participant in the homicide. The victim, whose name is protected by a publication ban, was driven to a farmer's field in St-Zotique and shot in the early hours of April 12, 2023. His body was discovered later that day.
Evidence presented in court, including bank and cellphone records, showed the girl traveled from Ontario to Quebec specifically to take part in the murder. Judge Rousse confirmed the shooting was a contract killing ordered by someone involved in organized crime. No other arrests have been made in this Quebec case.
"The victim was targeted because of his role in a criminal scheme," the judge noted, adding that the recommended sentence was "just and appropriate" and in line with the youth's personality.
Connection to a Second Murder in Ontario
This sentencing is not the girl's first conviction for murder. Earlier in 2025, she pleaded guilty to first-degree murder at a courthouse in Newmarket, Ontario, for a related crime. In that case, she admitted to luring a young man from the West Island to his death. That victim, an adult, was killed on April 23, 2023—just one week after the 16-year-old's body was found.
Two adult men were charged in the Ontario murder. On October 31, 2025, Lyjah Griffiths, 21, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 years and 10 months in prison. A first-degree murder charge against the other man, Kolby Mohan-Johnson, was withdrawn.
The Quebec court proceedings revealed few additional details about the St-Zotique homicide, maintaining a focus on the youth's culpability. The judge's ruling underscores the severe consequences for young individuals who play an active role in planned, violent crimes, even when they are not the ones who pull the trigger.
