Victim wants adult sentence for school shooter who killed 4, wounded 7

Charlene Klyne, a victim who was shot during a mass school shooting in La Loche in January, speaks to the media at a provincial NDP office in Saskatoon, Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Liam Richards

REGINA -- The last time Charlene Klyne was in the same room as the teenager convicted in a deadly school shooting in Saskatchewan, he opened fire and shot her in the face.

Klyne, who lost her sight after the January 2016 shooting in La Loche, says she doesn't want to be in the same room with him when his sentencing hearing starts Tuesday.

"I just want him to be sentenced as an adult. He was two weeks short of being an adult," Klyne said last week in Regina.

"He looked at people in the eye and just fired. You're an adult. It wasn't a kid's game. It's not a kid's game. You don't shoot people for a game."

Klyne was a substitute teacher in the La Loche high school when the shooting happened.

She said she remembers seeing the shooter through the window of her classroom door and the gun being raised. Everything went red because the pellets went into her eyes and she had a hard time with breathing because so there were many pellets in her neck.

Then the shooter was gone.

Teacher's aide Marie Janvier was in the room, too, and ran for help, but the shooter came back. Janvier was killed.

Klyne was one of seven people wounded that day in the high school. Janvier and teacher Adam Wood were killed.

Two brothers, Dayne and Drayden Fontaine, were shot in their home.

The teen, who can't be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, has pleaded guilty to the first-degree murders of Janvier and Wood and to second-degree murder in the deaths of the Fontaine brothers. He also pleaded guilty to seven counts of attempted murder.

Provincial court Judge Janet McIvor has set aside two weeks -- the first starting Tuesday and another in June -- to determine if the killer should be sentenced as a youth or an adult.

The Crown has served notice that it wants an adult sentence.

The maximum youth sentence for first-degree murder is 10 years in custody. An adult receives an automatic life sentence and, under a new provision for multiple murders, can receive consecutive periods of parole ineligibility of up to 25 years for each victim.

Defence lawyer Aaron Fox said last fall that there are many factors to consider in an application to sentence a young person as an adult, including moral culpability, lack of a criminal record and level of cognitive or social development.

No agreed facts about what happened -- including a motive -- were submitted to the court when the guilty pleas were entered last October.

At the time of the shooting, the teen's friends described him as the black sheep of his family and a victim of bullying at school. One person said the teen was often teased about his large ears.

Another student kept a screenshot of a chilling exchange that took place on social media just before the shooting.

"Just killed 2 ppl," said the message. "Bout to shoot ip the school."

Klyne said the severity of the crime warrants an adult sentence.

"I don't think of a child grabbing a gun and shooting people ... seven he wounded; four he killed. A child doesn't do that."

It could also be tough for Klyne to get to the hearing, which is being held in Meadow Lake, Sask.

Klyne has been living in Saskatoon, about 300 kilometres southeast of Meadow Lake, since the shooting because she needs continuous medical treatment.

She lost all vision in her left eye, can only see dark shadows in her right eye and has numerous pellets lodged in 13 different spots from her jaw to her chest. She's been told it's too risky to have surgery to remove the pellets.

She can't drive anymore and doesn't want to put stress on her family.

"He wrecked my life. He wrecked my family's life. He's wrecked a lot of people's lives," she said.

"I have a 96-year-old father. He wrecked his life. People phone him and tell him that I'm dying in the hospital. How is that fair to do to a 96-year-old man? He's just wrecked everybody's life.

"Enough is enough."