A former Minnesota nurse has been sentenced to nearly a year in jail after posing as a woman online and convincing two people, including a Carleton University student, to commit suicide.
William Melchert-Dinkel was sentenced to 360 days in jail on Wednesday after being convicted on two counts of aiding suicide.
Nadia Kajouji, an 18-year-old from Brampton, Ont., killed herself in 2008, while Mark Drybrough of the United Kingdom hanged himself in 2005.
Melchert-Dinkel was arrested more than a year ago, after a two-year investigation in which police reviewed transcripts of chatroom conversations he had with the victims, encouraging them to take their own lives.
Along with 360 days in jail, Melchert-Dinkel received 15 years of probation and 80 hours of community service for each conviction.
He is prohibited from having Internet access except for the purposes of work and may not be employed in the healthcare profession or work with vulnerable adults.
He could have received a maximum of 15 years for each of the two deaths.
Mark Kajouji said on Wednesday that the family was trying to move on, although it was hard to see Melchert-Dinkel get the minimum punishment in his sister's death.
"A guilty verdict isn't justice. Punishment is justice, and a year in a jail with work release doesn't really seem like justice," Mark Kajouli told CTV Toronto.
Paul Beaumaster, a prosecutor in the case, said in a statement that the level of punishment was determined by a severity level ranking, adding that it received a harsher sentence "than most other aiding suicide cases that have been sentenced in the last 10 years," based on its severity.
Beaumaster added: "I hope this case stands as a warning to other predators on the Internet who advise, aides or encourages suicide that they will be held accountable."
Kajouji went missing in early March, 2008 while attending Carleton University in Ottawa. It was later learned that she had jumped off a bridge into the Rideau River. Her body was found six weeks later.
As police investigated her disappearance, they found she had been on suicide chat sites and had befriended someone named "Cami," a 20-something female also contemplating suicide.
Police in St. Paul, Minn., had alleged that Melchert-Dinkel impersonated "Cami" and entered a suicide pact with Kajouji. They discussed several suicide methods, with "Cami" urging Kajouji to go first and to kill herself by hanging herself in front of a webcam.
Prosecutor said Melchert-Dinkel was obsessed with suicide and hanging, and sought potential victims on the Internet. When he found them he would offer compassion before giving step-by-step directions on how they could kill themselves.
According to police affidavits, Melchert-Dinkel had admitted to encouraging and creating suicide pacts for four or five years. He was stripped of his nursing licence in 2009.
Defence lawyers had argued that the victims were predisposed to committing suicide and that Melchert-Dinkel didn't sway their decisions through their online conversations.
Brother Mark Kajouji told CTV News that he was offended by the defence's claim that she would have killed herself regardless Melchert-Dinkle's urging, calling the claim a desperate act to avoid punishment.
"He is not on trial for my sister's condition or Mark Drybrough's condition. He was on trial for the encouragement of suicide," he said.
With files from The Associated Press
