Iqaluit girl's murderer lied, used as undercover agent: court document

A court document has shown that the man who pleaded guilty Monday to murdering a 13-year-old Iqaluit girl had lied several times to police about the crime and was even used as an RCMP undercover agent in an attempt to find the real killer.

Mark King Jeffrey, 26, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Jennifer Naglingniq, who was found stabbed to death in her home on Dec. 6, 2002.

His guilty plea ended what could have been months of trial. On Monday, the court released a 100-page decision from Justice Earl Johnson on a series of voir dires, which were held in the absence of a jury to determine the admissibility of contested evidence. The document was not public until Monday in order to avoid tainting a potential jury.

Johnson's decision revealed that Jeffrey gave about 40 statements to RCMP between the time of Naglingniq's death and his arrest for first-degree murder nearly four months later.

Jeffrey gave several versions of events, initially saying his cheek and eye were slashed and red because he had been in a fight with a man on the night of the murder.

Hehad also said that he was having a romantic encounter with Jennifer that night, before she was stabbed to death.

The document stated that Margaret Jeffrey, who approachedthe RCMP before she died in a 2003 traffic accident,felt disturbed that her son had not been honest with police about his possible involvement in the crime and even confronted her son about it.

According to the document, Jeffrey swore on a Bible that he did not kill the eighth grader, even accusing her grieving mother, Nicotye, of the murder.

Jeffrey told police that he was only a witness to the scene, and it was Nicotye Naglingniqwho stabbed Jennifer several times in the throat and body with a steak knife, slitting her wrists and pulling down her pants to make it look like sexual assault.

Jeffrey then suggested that RCMP set him up with a microphone to extract a confession from the girl's mother. According to the document, he acted as an undercover agent for the RCMP in early 2003.

He was urgedto call Nicotye Naglingniq repeatedly, as well as visit her home to tryto get a wired interview with her, despite her traumatized state due to her daughter's murder. Jeffrey had said he wanted to stop calling the mother, saying he thought she may have been suicidal.

When Jeffrey finally did gain access to the mother, the document stated that the recording device was shut off at one point something Jeffrey denied he did deliberately.

Jeffrey willbesentenced of life in prison for the murder. Johnson will decide on April 30 how long itwill be before Jeffrey is eligible for parole; for second-degree murder, thatwill be between 10 and 25 years.