Crown requests adult sentence for man convicted of murdering Misha Pavelick

Sentencing wraps up for Misha Pavelick’s killer, with the Crown seeking an adult sentence due to his criminal history.

The Crown has argued sentencing a Regina man found guilty of second-degree murder as an adult rather than a youth in connection to the 2006 killing of Misha Pavelick.

During sentencing submissions on Thursday, Crown prosecutor Adam Breker laid out a pattern of unrelated offences the man committed before and after the night Pavelick died – both as a youth and adult.

Pavelick was fatally stabbed at a high-school graduation party held near Regina Beach on May 21, 2006.

In November of last year, a 37-year-old Regina man was found guilty of second-degree murder. He was 17 years old at the time of Pavelick’s death and currently cannot be named due to the protections of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

If imposed a youth sentence for second-degree murder, the man would serve a maximum of four years in police custody and three years under community supervision. However, if ruled as an adult, he would face the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment with no chance of parole for seven years.

Through the Crown’s closing sentencing submission, Breker pointed out the man’s earliest conviction dates back to September 2005.

In addition, he had other documented offences spanning to January 2007, including one occurring just 25 days after the night Pavelick was murdered.

Some of the offences included assault causing bodily harm, dangerous driving and mischief.

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“Our submission would strongly point to the fact he had a maturity of an adult and had the capacity to make the moral judgments of an adult,” Breker argued.

Defence lawyer Andrew Hitchcock proclaimed the Regina man to be “heavily influenced” by his peers which fueled his actions.

“The psychologist said the pattern as a youth was being around anti-social peers, drinking and he would get into trouble,” Hitchcock told the court through his closing sentencing submission.

“When [the man] became an adult he became a loner, then it was cocaine and meth and alcohol that led him into trouble.”

When factoring how many years Pavelick’s killer should serve, Hitchcock made the argument that his behaviour and cognitive function reflected a “borderline average” 17-year-old.

“Even though being heavily influenced by peers does not excuse bad conduct, but it does indicate this was technically a teenager and that is who he was at the time,” Hitchcock firmly said in court, adding the law has to be applied to him from the point of view of how he was at 17.

The man has remained in police custody since October of 2024.

With the number of impact statements made by family and friends of Pavelick, along with a psychologist and community corrections worker, Justice Catherine Dawson said it will take time to review.

Dawson is expected to make a decision on the man’s sentence on May 26.