A young man from eastern P.E.I. has been sentenced to two years in custody for manslaughter and interfering with human remains in the death of 17-year-old Tyson MacDonald late last year.
The male, who cannot be named because he was 17 at the time of the crime, was sentenced as a youth Friday at the Supreme Court of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown. He is now 18.
The sentence was a joint recommendation from the Crown and defence.
The teen will not receive credit for the time he’s already served in custody since his arrest last December. The sentence does, however, include an additional year of community supervision after his release. He will also be banned from owning or using weapons and will have to provide a DNA sample for the national data bank.
“This case, no matter how it is described, is a tragedy,” Justice Jonathan Coady told the courtroom in Charlottetown. “The impossible task for the court today is to try to explain the sanction the criminal justice system will impose… That explanation will not be satisfactory for some.”
Given the restrictions on youth sentencing, MacDonald’s family and their supporters have said in person and online that they don’t believe his killer is receiving the time in jail he deserves.
Dozens of supporters gathered both outside and inside the courthouse for Friday’s sentencing hearing, many holding signs reading things things like “Adult Crime = Adult Time” and “Justice for Tyson.”
Coady noted as he delivered the sentence that the Crown can make an application to sentence a youth as an adult, but there is a high legal threshold for that to be accepted by the court. In this case, the judge said, the Crown opted not to pursue an adult sentence.
Crown prosecutor John Diamond told reporters that was because there was no evidence the crime was planned, premeditated or intentional. Also, he said the teen wasn’t living independently when the crime was committed and had no prior criminal record, so the threshold for an adult sentence couldn’t have been met.
“Any sentence that was going to be issued today wasn’t going to bring back Tyson, and that’s regrettable,” he said. “Anybody who has lost a child — like myself — understands the trauma…
“The criminal justice system can’t provide a remedy for the loss they’ve had.”
Tyson’s sister Sierra MacDonald said the sentence left her angry, sad, disappointed and disgusted.
“I did expect this to happen … but you kind of have hope that something’s going to be different,” she told reporters.
“They talk about how this sentencing is fair, and to me that’s a terrible word choice because it’s truly not fair — at all.
“I don’t see how it can be fair when, you know, we lose someone close to us. And Tyson deserved much more than this sentence … This sentence is not enough.”
‘I just want my son back’
Tyson’s mother Amanda MacDonald was among many relatives who gave victim impact statements inside the packed courtroom on Friday to put their pain, sadness and anger on the public record.
“I just want my son back,” she said. “The hardest truth of all is we’ll never know why [the teen] took Tyson’s life…
It was hell. And it continues to be hell.— Tyson’s father Kent MacDonald
“Nobody can believe this happened. But because Tyson was so loved, we have so many pictures and memories to last a lifetime… He was just loved so much.”
A statement was also read on behalf of MacDonald’s father, Kent.
“The anger I feel for what [the teen] took from my son and from me and everyone that loves him is unexplainable,” his statement said. “It was hell. And it continues to be hell.”
The court also heard an impact statement prepared by Montague Regional High School, where Tyson was a Grade 12 student at the time of his death.
It said that there was an overall “significant loss of learning” in the tight-knit school community in the months that followed, adding: “We were so worried about how students were processing their grief, and we still are.”
Charged with 1st-degree murder
MacDonald was found dead in Kings County after a six-day search in December 2023. The teenager sentenced Friday, who eventually admitted to having shot MacDonald, had been among those who joined in the search for him and visited his family to offer support.
He was initially charged with first-degree murder but pleaded guilty in October to manslaughter and interfering with human remains.
In Canadian law, manslaughter is causing a death through an unlawful act without having intended to kill. According to the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the maximum sentence for a youth who pleads guilty to or is convicted of that crime is three years in custody.
A second youth charged in connection with the case pleaded guilty to public mischief in April and was sentenced to an additional two months in custody on top of the time he’d already served.
‘Reckless’ use of a firearm
MacDonald, who lived in Kings County, was reported missing on Dec. 14, 2023. He had told his parents he was going to a hockey game in Charlottetown with friends.
An 18-year-old P.E.I. man originally charged with 1st-degree murder has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and interfering with human remains in the death of Tyson MacDonald. Only 17 when he shot MacDonald last December, he will be sentenced as a youth. The news left MacDonald’s family and demonstrators outside the courtroom angry and disappointed. CBC’s Steve Bruce was there.
It took six days to find his remains, and the two male youths were arrested that same day.
Court heard back in October that the teen sentenced Friday and MacDonald had intended to go to a hockey game that night, but they went to the teen’s house first and there was a shotgun near the door.
“[The teen] took possession of the firearm, reckless as to whether the safety was on or off, pointed it at Tyson MacDonald and pulled the trigger, striking him in the left side of his face,” Diamond read from an agreed statement of facts at the time.
The teen eventually told police that he panicked, and drove MacDonald’s body to Greek River Road and left him there. He then picked up the second youth and they drove to Charlottetown.
At some point in the days that followed, the first teen returned to Greek River Road and moved MacDonald’s body again.
2nd youth misled police
That second youth had no knowledge that MacDonald had been killed, according to the teen sentenced on Friday, and had no role in the death.
But during the search for MacDonald, the two misled police about his whereabouts, telling them a story about dropping MacDonald off on the County Line Road to meet a young woman they did not know.
The second teen eventually admitted he “felt pressured” by the other youth to lie to police on three occasions. Although “there were no explicit threats of violence,” according to the agreed statement of facts in his case, the teen told police he knew the other boy “had access to various firearms.”
Following his guilty plea in April to public mischief through misleading police and obstruction of justice, the other teen was sentenced to two more months in jail and 30 days of community service. He had been in custody since his December arrest.
‘Make the most of it’
In his sentencing decision, Coady said a pre-sentence report had described the teenager as “co-operative” while in custody at the youth detention centre.
The judge said that, despite his deception to the family and police and his disregard for MacDonald’s humanity, the young man is remorseful for his actions and has no record of any other criminal offences.
In closing, Coady said he hoped this day would mark a new beginning for the teen.
“The path forward for you will be a difficult one. What the court has done for you today is extended you a pathway forward. Seize it,” the judge told him.
“Find ways to contribute some good back to our society. As a young man, you have the opportunity of a lifetime to do that. As this tragedy shows, not everyone has that chance. Make the most of it.”
