Driver who killed Sgt. Harnett at high risk to reoffend if sentenced as adult: psychologist
CBC
If he goes to prison, the driver who killed Calgary police Sgt. Andrew Harnett is a high risk to reoffend, a forensic behavioural psychologist testified Friday.
The driver was a teen when he took off during a traffic stop on New Year's Eve 2020. Harnett was clinging to the side of the vehicle for 400 metres before he was flung into oncoming traffic on Falconridge Boulevard.
Two people were charged: the driver and his passenger, Amir Abdulrahman.
Abdulrahman pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
The driver, who can't be named because he was underage at the time of the crime, was tried on a charge of first-degree murder but found guilty of the lesser offence of manslaughter.
This week, Court of King's Bench Justice Anna Loparco has been presiding over an application by prosecutor Mike Ewenson to have the driver sentenced as an adult.
Ewenson proposed an 11- to 13-year prison sentence.
The maximum sentence for a youth convicted of manslaughter is two years in custody and a year in the community under supervision and conditions.
The accused was 17 years old on that fateful New Year's Eve — just 11 days from his 18th birthday.
On Friday, the defence got its turn to make submissions, calling Dr. Liam Ennis, a forensic psychologist who specializes in risk assessments.
Ennis testified that the greatest risk to the now 20-year-old reoffending is social peers who, in an adult prison setting, would be fellow inmates.
"I have a hard time seeing hope of positive change if he goes through the adult penitentiary system," said Ennis.
Ennis reviewed many of the young man's early life circumstances.
The judge heard that the offender grew up in a "highly disruptive" and abusive situation.
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