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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Security heavy in court for teen who murdered young mother, threatened judge
The teen was on crutches when he shot Jordanna Kucher in the back outside an east-side Saskatoon pub last fall. The 16-year-old was using them because he'd been shot himself in a gang fight a month earlier. The detail emerged Thursday in provincial court during the the teen's sentencing hearing. The boy, now 17, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the Nov. 14, 2024 death of Kucher outside The Copper Mug pub and restaurant. He shot the young mother during a robbery. Kucher's friends and family spent five hours in court listening to the prosecutor, defence and judge try to arrive at a sentence that fit the teen's personal circumstances, offered some justice to Kucher's family and protected society when he is released back into the community in his early 20s. Security in the courtroom was heightened by the presence of extra deputy sheriffs, including ones placed by the prisoner's box. "It's a very tragic case," said defence lawyer Meagan Ward. "And it's a very tragic back story as it relates to the accused." Crown attorney Shaela Verma read an agreed statement of facts into the record. Police were called to The Copper Mug on 8th Street East at 6:25 p.m. CST on Nov. 14. They arrived to find Kucher face down on the pavement with a gunshot wound to her back. She died half an hour later. Investigators quickly pieced together what happened through surveillance video at the pub and in taxis used by two suspects. They were able to track a young male suspect, on crutches, and a female, to a house at 320 Ave. Q South. The in-car footage, which included audio, revealed that the teen had a firearm in his waistband. After the shooting, they were heard on tape discussing "murder," and "taking care of business." A man with Kucher that night said they had walked from McDonalds to the coffee shop to buy cigarettes. They were confronted outside the pubp, and that Kucher was shot during a robbery. The 16-year-old was arrested at the house on Avenue Q and charged with first-degree murder. A 36-year-old woman, Katelin McGillivary, was also arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Her trial is slated to begin Sept. 22. 'Better to be the one doing the killing,' teen said of gang life Verma and defence lawyer Meagan Ward agreed the boy should get the maximum youth sentence of seven years. But they diverged on how much credit he should be given for the time he had already spent in custody, and whether he should be forced to take an intensive rehabilitation program. "There were some challenging legal issues in terms of pre-sentence custody and how that gets considered," Ward said outside court. Comments the teen made during a psychiatric assessment further complicated sentencing him. Court heard how the teen had told the report writers that "I'd like to be the first kid to punch a judge in the face." He also said, describing his involvement with gangs, that "it's kill or be killed out there." "It's better to be the one doing the killing." Verma said the pre-sentence report offered "a roadmap to how he ended up here," and that he had "a very complicated family and upbringing ... marked by trauma and survival." He had significant gang involvement "and is ambivalent about leaving the gang life." She said that his older brother murdered a Saskatoon newcomer in 2019 and then, in 2022, was himself murdered in front of the teen. "Violence is his main problem-solving strategy," she said, quoting from the report. Ward said the teen was born in Yorkton and had minimal contact with his father. She said that he's close to his mother but that she struggled with her own addictions and gang involvement. None of his family members were in court Thursday. She said that he's the third oldest of 10, and that all of his brothers and sisters are in foster care. "The street became his family," Ward said. "He became ingrained in street life at an early age. The criminal lifestyle is the only lifestyle he was exposed to." Ward said he began drinking at age 8, and that he used cocaine and crystal meth. Verma had recommended the teen be placed in the Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision (IRCS) program, which offers specialized therapeutic programs and services for youth with mental health needs who are convicted of a serious violent offence. But Ward said the teen was not interested in an IRCS sentence and would not participate in any of the programming, even if ordered. He did not explain why he did not want the enhanced care. 'How do you sum up a life in a page?' Kucher's parents, siblings, cousins and friends were in court for the sentencing and spent an hour reading victim impact statements to the judge. Court heard how Kucher was adopted when she was three. "How do you sum up a life in a page," said her mother, Dana. "She was a firecracker from the first day ... she needed an outlet, and discovered dance." Premier Dance in Kindersley, Sask. put together a photo tribute page for Kucher, describing her as "a talented, naturally gifted dancer who trained her entire dance career at our studio." "She completed several major exam levels in Ballet & Tap." Kucher had a nine-month-old daughter at the time she was killed. Speaking to the teen in the prisoner's box, her mother recalled learning that Jordanna's daughter had just taken her first steps when she died. "She lay dying in a parking lot, surrounded by strangers, as her daughter took her first steps," she said. Her older sister, Nikita, added that she came to court "to speak her name." 'You have a debt' Associate Chief Judge Sanjeev Anand sentenced the teen to seven years, but did not force him to take the IRCS programming. The sentence broke down to four years in custody, followed by three years under close supervision in the community. Anand also imposed a lifetime firearms ban. "I hope you're impacted by the victim impact statements you've heard," he said. Anand acknowledged the teen's traumatic background, but added "you took a life, that's on you." "You have a debt. You have to spend the rest of your life paying that debt." The boy declined to speak when offered the chance by Anand.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Swimmer in Sudbury, Ont., says she doesn't feel safe in local lake after fatal incident
Jodie McConnell says she no longer feels safe swimming far from the shoreline of Lake Nepahwin in Sudbury because of the growing number of motorized boats on the small lake. On Friday, Aug.1 a boat hit a swimmer in the lake. She later died of her injuries.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
I went blind after drinking a tainted cocktail while traveling — the scary threat you've never heard of
There could be an undetectable poison lurking in your vacation cocktail. A Canadian woman is warning social media users after she lost her eyesight from sipping a stealthily toxic cocktail overseas — and she says she's one of the lucky ones. In December, seven tourists were hospitalized in Fiji after drinking tainted booze at a luxury resort bar. Just a month earlier, six young travelers, including one American, died in Laos under similar circumstances. Each year, thousands are killed or sickened after unknowingly consuming alcoholic beverages laced with methanol. 'It smells no different and it tastes no different from the alcohol that we typically drink,' explained Ashley King, who lost her vision after drinking tainted booze while backpacking through Bali. Methanol is a clear, flammable liquid that smells almost identical to ethanol — its drinkable cousin — but don't be fooled: it's highly toxic to humans. 'Just as little as 30 milliliters of it — a shot — can kill you, and 15 milliliters of it can make you go blind, have organ failure, liver damage and even brain damage,' King warned. The chemical is commonly used in household and industrial products, such as gasoline, antifreeze, paint thinner and windshield wiper fluids. But on the black market, especially in developing countries, it's often dumped into bootleg alcohol to stretch supply and fatten profits. That toxic mix is then sold to bars, hotels and other establishments, where it's served to unsuspecting patrons. 'No different from any other night' That's what happened to King, who was visiting southern Bali in 2011 on a gap year before starting college. She and her friend were at a high-end bar, where she got drunk on vodka cocktails. 'It was no different from any other night that I'd had when I was there,' she said. Though she felt hungover the next day, she first suspected something was wrong about two days later when they arrived in Australia. 'I remember talking to the customs people and it was like I was drunk,' she told The Guardian. 'I could not form sentences in a way that sounded confident.' After landing in New Zealand, she went to sleep when they got to their hotel. When she woke up at noon the next day, she was confused to find her hotel room seemingly totally dark. But it wasn't dark — there was something wrong with her vision. She also couldn't breathe. At the hospital, a blood rest revealed methanol in her blood. It was bad enough that doctors were surprised she'd even woken up. 'Losing my eyesight is the hardest thing I've ever gone through, and I deal with it every single day,' King said on TikTok. The hidden danger lurking in your drink When methanol enters the body, it turns into formaldehyde and formic acid — both highly toxic — which causes the blood to become dangerously acidic, according to the Methanol Institute. Early symptoms can mimic an ordinary night out drinking: dizziness, nausea, vomiting, poor judgment and drowsiness. But things can go from bad to deadly within 12 to 24 hours of drinking — and in some cases, more severe symptoms take up to 72 hours to surface, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While a normal hangover fades, methanol poisoning only gets worse. Victims may suffer severe abdominal pain, vomiting, vertigo, trouble breathing, confusion, headaches and blurry vision. In more severe cases, blindness, seizures and coma can follow. The Institute says methanol poisoning can often be treated if doctors intervene within 10 to 30 hours. One surprising thing that can help? Drinking alcohol. While she was in the hospital, King says she was given several vodkas with orange juice to flush the methanol from her system. 'It was the most absurd drinking game I've ever played,' she said. 'The drunker I got the more I could breathe, the more I was able to see.' They also give her hemodialysis to filter waste from the blood, plus steroids to try to fix her eyes — but she was left with only about 2% vision, which she describes as 'like snowfall or a TV screen.' 'I've never felt so alone in my life,' she said. 'Three days ago, I had had my entire life ahead of me. And now you're telling me that I'm blind?' How to avoid the poison pour While the problem is global, statistics show that Asia has the highest prevalence of methanol poisoning worldwide, with outbreaks commonly occurring in Indonesia, India, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines, according to Doctors Without Borders. Since 2019, the group has tracked more than 1,000 incidents that have poisoned over 40,000 people and killed roughly 14,200. The fatality rate in an outbreak is often reported to be 20% to 40%. Last month, the US Embassy in Jordan issued a warning after a rash of methanol-related deaths linked to locally made booze — and offered some tips for travelers looking to avoid similar fates. Start by sticking to alcohol sold in licensed liquor stores, bars, hotels and established markets. Skip street vendors and informal setups. If the drink is dirt cheap, there's probably a reason — counterfeit alcohol is often sold for a fraction of the real thing. And don't accept free drinks from strangers. At the bar, watch your drink being made. If it smells off or tastes strange, ditch it. You should also avoid homemade liquor or local spirits. When in doubt, especially in unfamiliar places, skip the hard stuff altogether. Prepackaged options like beer, cider, wine or duty-free liquor are generally safer and harder to tamper with. Before cracking open any bottle, inspect it for signs of tampering — poor label quality, broken seals or obvious spelling errors are all red flags. And of course, never let your drink out of sight. While abroad, the office said it's smart to sign up for travel alerts from your government's foreign-affairs department or local embassy. Keeping tabs on local news and knowing how to reach emergency services can also make all the difference, just in case that nightcap turns into a nightmare. 'This doesn't need to happen. But it does, and not enough people know about it. Because of this, I'm sharing my story,' King said. She's also launched a petition to spread awareness and encourage education on the dangers in both schools and airports. Solve the daily Crossword
