[Aria]

Michael Williams, “Buffy”, Joseph Laboucan, Michael Briscoe And Stephanie Rosa Bird

Stephanie Bird, 20, seen here in a courtroom sketch, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for her part in the sex killing of 13-year-old Nina Courtepatte, west of Edmonton. (CBC)

Nina Courtepatte's bruised and bloody body was found on the Edmonton Springs golf course in 2005.

From CBC News:

A 20-year-old woman convicted for her part in the gruesome sex killing of a 13-year-old Edmonton girl three years ago was sentenced Friday to 12 years in prison.

Stephanie Bird, 20, seen here in a courtroom sketch, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for her part in the sex killing of 13-year-old Nina Courtepatte, west of Edmonton. (CBC)
Stephanie Bird, 17 at the time, helped a group of young people lure Nina Courtepatte from West Edmonton Mall to a secluded golf course, where the girl was raped and beaten to death.

Bird was found guilty in April 2007 on charges of kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and manslaughter.

Last week during her sentencing hearing, she made a tearful apology to Courtepatte's family after the judge ruled that she would be sentenced as an adult, rather than a youth, because of the seriousness of the crime.

Bird's identify has been protected throughout the lengthy court process, but Justice June Ross dropped the publication ban after sentencing Friday.

Ross rejected a call from the Crown that the woman be sent to prison for 25 years. Bird still has a chance for rehabilitation and is young enough to turn her life around, the judge said.

The judge also allowed three years of credit for her time already served in jail.

"Say hello to prison justice, child killer!" Courtepatte's uncle, Burt Atkinson, shouted as Bird was led out of court.

Courtepatte's mother, Peacha Atkinson, called the sentence "a slap in the face."

"She deserves life," she told reporters outside the courthouse.

Atkinson did take consolation in the fact that Bird's name is now public.

"She can't hide anymore. The public will know her name and this way other children will be safe."

Bird is one of five people charged in the case.

Joseph Laboucan and Michael Williams are serving life sentences. Another accused, Michael Briscoe, was acquitted, although the Crown is appealing that decision.

The trial for a fifth young woman, now 18 but 15 at the time of the crime, began this week in another Edmonton courtroom.

She is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated sexual assault and kidnapping.

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWbxytD4ZL4&feature=player_embedded"]YouTube- New Trial Ordered In Courtepatte Killing[/nomedia]

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVq0U47PBl8&feature=player_embedded"]YouTube- Disturbing Video Played During Courtepatte Trial[/nomedia]

The Court of Appeal of Alberta has ordered a new trial for a man acquitted of killing 13-year-old Nina Courtepatte, who was raped and killed on an Edmonton golf course in April 2005.

Michael Briscoe, who was 34 at the time he was charged, was found not guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault in March 2007, but the Crown appealed his acquittal.

In a ruling released Tuesday morning, the Court of Appeal ruled the judge erred when he found Briscoe not guilty.

"The Crown has established that the trial judge erred in failing to consider whether the respondent was wilfully blind to the harm his cohorts intended to cause the victim," Justice Peter Martin wrote in the ruling. "But for this error, the verdicts may well have been different."

Alberta Justice Minister and Attorney General Alison Redford said she was pleased with the court's ruling.

"What we tell people and what we will continue to tell them is that our job is to prosecute people," she said. "That if we feel that people have been acquitted that should not have been acquitted, then we will make sure that we pursue as far as we possibly can every element of the law that we can to ensure that they are properly brought to trial and, if appropriate, prosecuted."

Four other people have been found guilty in relation to Courtepatte's rape and murder.

Joseph Laboucan, who was 19 at the time of the killing, and Michael Williams, who was 17, are serving life sentences for first-degree murder.

Stephanie Bird, who was also 17 at the time, is serving a 12-year sentence for kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and manslaughter.

A 19-year-old woman, who was 16 at the time of Courtepatte's slaying and cannot be named, was found guilty in July of second-degree murder.

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The five people charged with the sex slaying of 13-year-old Nina Courtepatte joked about "chopping people's heads off" a day before she was killed on a golf course, a friend testified Thursday.

The 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named, said he was hanging out at West Edmonton Mall with some of the accused on April 2, 2005. They later all went for a drive.

"There was a little spark of a joke to go chop people's heads off and throw them in the street," said the boy.

He said Nina's name was mentioned. Then there was talk of going to pick up a machete or some kind of knife, some gas and "Big Blue."

He said "Big Blue" was the nickname for a large, blue vat.

The group also talked about "selling" him as a male prostitute on Bellamy Hill.

"I understood it was a joke," the teen testified. "A few of them were laughing."

The next day, he saw two of the accused, a 16-year-old girl and her 17-year-old boyfriend, back at the mall.

The girl was distraught and crying. There were two drops of blood on her boyfriend's boot, and the knuckles on both his hands were red, the friend said.

On April 4, the owner of the Edmonton Springs Golf Course near Stony Plain found Nina's battered and bloody body lying on the fourth fairway.

Court documents allege she was twice raped, choked with the wrench, beaten with a metal sledgehammer and stabbed with throwing knives.

The documents further allege the five accused wanted to kill someone — anyone — and picked Nina out of the crowd at West Edmonton Mall.

Joseph Laboucan, 21, and Michael Briscoe, 36, are the first of five accused in the case to go to trial. The pair have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, aggravated sexual assault and kidnapping.

The 17-year-old male accused has already pleaded guilty to first-degree murder; he is to be sentenced in April. Two girls, aged 17 and 16, face trials on the same charges later this year.

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A man on trial for killing a 13-year-old girl told RCMP he watched a group beat up and steal from a prostitute, but had nothing to do with the crime.

The judge hearing the case still has to decide if Joseph Laboucan's taped statements are admissible as evidence.

Joseph Laboucan is interviewed by an RCMP officer in the Stony Plain detachment on April 5, the day after Courtepatte's body was found.

Michael Briscoe, 36, and Laboucan, 21, have been charged in the kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and first-degree murder of Nina Courtepatte, a 13-year-old girl they allegedly picked out of a crowd at West Edmonton Mall.

Her bruised and bloody body was found on the Edmonton Springs Golf Course in April 2005.

In the recording, Laboucan is seen being interviewed by an RCMP officer in the Stony Plain detachment on April 5, the day after the girl's body was found.

Laboucan's defence team has argued his charter rights were violated in the recorded interview session.

Laboucan says prostitute picked up

Laboucan was brought in on outstanding warrants for break and enter, but once in the interrogation room, Const. Robert Kroop tells him he is also being arrested for murder.

"For murder? Are you serious?" asks Laboucan.

In the tape, the officer allows Laboucan to leave and call a lawyer. After he returns, Laboucan eventually tells the officer he and a group picked up a prostitute on 118th Avenue and took her out of town.

One of the other people he was with attacked her with a steel ratchet, he says.

"He hit her over the back of the head with it," Laboucan says. "They started, like, beating her up and they kicked her around and stuff, and they hit her over the head a few times. They took her money and then we left."

Laboucan tells the officer he could do nothing to help the woman because one of the others pulled a gun on him.

Laboucan didn't mention a 13-year-old girl or West Edmonton Mall during his statement. He told the officer he believed the prostitute was a single mother.

Gang link alleged

He also suggests some of the people he was with were connected with a gang.

"That's my life right there," he said. "'Cause they have cops working for them, they have judges, they have lawyers, they have everything. You understand what I'm saying? From what I've just told you, I'm dead."

The tape was played in court Monday and five more hours were expected to be played Tuesday.

Briscoe and Laboucan are being tried before a judge alone in Alberta Court of Queen's Bench. The trial is expected to last a month.

Five people were charged in Courtepatte's death.

A 19-year-old man has already pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.

Two young women are also charged with kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and first-degree murder, but haven't yet gone to trial. The women, teens at the time of the slaying, can't be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

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