Ruling on teen expected soon

The Ontario Court of Appeal is expected to rule shortly on whether a sixmonth sentence for a teenager convicted of being an accessory after the fact of murder should be reduced to the two months he has already served.

The 16-year-old Orangeville youth was sentenced on Oct. 5 for his part in pedophile Douglas Moore’s killing and disposal of the bodies of Joe Manchisi, 20, and Robert Grewal, 22, of Mississauga on Nov. 12, 2003. The teen’s identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

At his trial earlier this year the teenager, who was 14 at the time of the killings, admitted he helped Moore, 36, bury the torsos of the dismembered men in the Montreal area, and their other body parts near Cornwall. The heads and hands are still missing, although the teenager has evidently assisted Peel Regional Police in a search of the Cornwall area but hasn’t remembered the exact location.

But he testified at trial that he helped Moore dig separate holes near train tracks, possibly in the Cornwall area, and then buried the slain men’s heads and hands.

The teen was under house arrest for 18 months following his April 12, 2004, arrest as an accessory.

He is now serving the first four months of his six-month sentence at a youth facility, and would spend the final two months at a half-way house.

Moore was never charged with the murders, as he committed suicide while in custody at the Maplehurst Detention Centre on April 2, 2004. Had he lived, it’s expected police would also have charged him with the murder of Mississauga teenager Rene Charlebois, whose body was buried in the Mono dump.

No motive has been given for the slaying of Charlebois, but police have said Moore killed Manchisi and Grewal as he thought they’d broken into his home and stolen about $4,000 worth of cash, marijuana and jewellery in October 2003.

However, the teen says it was he who committed the thefts. He said he regarded Moore as a father figure, and was living in Moore’s house at the time of the thefts and killings. He told the court he helped Moore cover up the murders as he feared for his own life.

At the teen’s sentencing, Ontario Court Justice Minoo Khoorshed said he had no hesitation in sentencing the teen to jail because of the horror of the crime and the fact that the teen had denied knowledge about the killings for more than five months.

In seeking the reduction, the teen’s lawyer, Charles Waite, argued that the crime was not an unusual one according to the legal meaning.

At Osgoode Hall Friday, the Toronto Star reported, Waite argued the offence wasn’t “an exceptional case” as defined by law, in that the crime wasn’t against the general public such as a hate crime would be although he admitted it had “disastrous effects” on the families of the victims. He said the teen never participated in the murders or knew about them in advance.

However, The Toronto Star quoted Crown lawyer Feroza Bhabha as saying the offence was an “exceptional case” in that the teen played a “significant role” because of his actions after helping Moore dispose of the dismembered remains.

“He showed a callous disregard for the victims’ families ... spent the money he stole from Moore on his friends, knowing full well his story caused Moore to take their lives.

“The horrific impact of his participation continues for the families. They have not been able to find all the remains.”