Casting Out Demons

"Now she'll be in a situation where for the last portion of her sentence, she'll be living as a normal individual in society."
"We'll be able to tell and see that this sentence has in fact done what it's supposed to do, which is reintegrate her and prepare her to live a real life in the real world."
Katherin Beyak, lawyer for Canada's youngest multiple killer

"It's another positive report. In fact, all the reports I've received since I imposed this sentence a number of years ago were positive."
"The risk level, according to the reports, remains low and, in fact, her score measures at the lower end of the lowest level."
Justice Scott Brooker, Alberta

"I would like to express my gratitude towards the court and my team for all of the support I've received."
J.R. patricide, fratricide

Police outside the house in 2006 where "J.R." helped her 23-year-old boyfriend, Jeremy Allan Steinke, murder her Medicine Hat parents and eight year-old brother. Archive / Calgary Herald

"I think it’s the great unknown, isn’t it. She’s definitely followed all of the rules. She’s participated in therapy, she’s done everything that’s been asked of her but when there’s no further sentence and no further consequence, I’m not sure what will happen. I hope that this has been a successful rehabilitative process. I hope that. But, I don’t know."
Chief Crown prosecutor Ramona Robins

She was twelve, he was twenty-three. It isn't just a decade difference in age that's involved, it's the presumed and obvious maturity gap between a pre-teen and a young adult. In this particular case, however, it seems that the adult was no less mature than the emerging teen. The girl's petulant anger at her parents who failed to approve of her intimate relationship with the young man led her to plot with that young man to punish her parents.

The punishment that ensued was brutal and final. Although the boyfriend, Jeremy Allan Steinke, 23 at the time, claims he had meant to put fear into the girl's parents, he ended up brutally stabbing them to death. The girl's little brother, eight at the time, wasn't killed by her boyfriend. The twelve-year-old had decided that her brother should also die, so she set about herself, to kill him.

The gruesome murders took place at midnight, in Medicine Hat, Alberta, in April of 2006. After the murders the two went off to spend time with friends. Jasmine Richardson was convicted, in 2007, on three counts of first-degree murder, as a juvenile. And sentenced to ten years of incarceration. During that time she received psychiatric treatment followed by four and a half years of community conditional supervision.

At trial, police officers and other witnesses became emotional as they recalled seeing the body of the small boy, found on his bed with a deep slash to his throat, his eyes and mouth wide open. Stuffed animals and a toy light sabre spattered with the boy's blood could be seen lying next to his body. CBC News

Her boyfriend was sentenced to an adult 25 years' imprisonment without parole. Serving an open custody sentence in a group home in Calgary since 2010, she has been permitted escorted trips to therapy, shopping malls and banks to acquaint her with ordinary social and personal tasks. Her gradual reintegration back to society is anticipated by 2016.

In 2007 psychiatric pre-sentencing reports portrayed her as afflicted with oppositional defiance disorder and conduct disorder. Two 'disorders' which many parents would snort derisively that describes their relationship with their own children. Who would never in their wildest nightmares imagine behaving in the malignantly vicious manner that this girl did toward her oppositional parents and little brother.

She was diagnosed pre-therapy with dependency issues, anxiety and depression, prone to immature problem-solving and wishful fantasies; all of which appear to be descriptives common to many, if not most adolescents growing into their teens and pre-adulthood. A year later, the girl was reported to be improving with therapy, even while the Crown stated that her interpretation of the crime appeared "troubling".

Her identity continues to be protected by law She is now 21 years of age, and being prepared to live "as a normal individual in society", her sentence running out in nine months. This girl is a violent psychopath, and it's hard to imagine she can have been 'cured' of tendencies she may have been born with, and practised with blood-curdling insouciance. Manipulative wiles are known to be a specialty of psychopaths.

After murdering her three family members, she and her boyfriend enjoyed celebratory sex, then went on to party with friends, before being arrested the following day. On Thursday, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Scott Brooker eliminated her weekday curfew; her weekend curfew had already been eliminated in 2014. She lives without supervision.