Iqaluit teen fought for her life before murder, court told

Thirteen-year-old Jennifer Naglingniq fought for her life before she was stabbed to death in 2002, an Iqaluit court was told.

The facts of the crime were read Monday as Nunavut court Justice Earl Johnson heard arguments into when Mark King Jeffrey, who pleaded guilty last week to Jennifer's murder, can apply for parole. Jeffrey, 26, will receive an automatic life sentence for his second-degree murder plea.

Johnson will announce Friday how many years Jeffrey will have to serve in prison before he can apply for parole. The minimum is 10 years but the Crown is asking for 15.

Nicotye Naglingniq, the Grade 8 student's mother, found the girl deadat their home on Dec. 6, 2002. Jennifer had been cut and stabbed more than 30 times, with wounds perforating her lung and cutting her aorta, the main artery that carries blood to the heart. An autopsy showed the girl received defensive wounds on her hands as she struggled to fend off her attacker. She died from rapid blood loss.

Jeffrey's face appeared flush and he looked down at a courtroom table as the facts of his crime were read out. About 20 people sat in the courtroom for the hearing, including some of the victim's family members and friends, who wept when the Nicotye Naglingniq's victim impact statement was read aloud.

Naglingniq wrote that Jeffrey had taken two lives that night: her daughter's and her own. She had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorders and has been traumatized by constant flashbacks of finding her daughter's body.

Losing a child can be devastating for any parent, she wrote, but knowing her daughter had suffered that night was unbearable.

Naglingniqalso criticized delays in the court process, asking where the compassion was for victims of crimes who are seeking closure. She wrote that she doesn't think she could have children again because she is too afraid of what could happen to them.

The Crown argued that Jeffrey should serve 15 years behind bars due to the brutal nature of his crime, and the fact that the victim was young and vulnerable and attacked in her own home.

Prosecutors said Jeffrey showed a high degree of intent, shown by the fact that he had used a second knife to commit the crime after the first one broke.

They said he misled RCMP for several months after the murder, blaming innocent people for Naglingniq's death, before he confessed to police while he was in jail on Sept. 28, 2005. He originally registered a not guilty plea to first-degree murder,then pleaded guilty to thelesser charge of second-degree murderafter the trial had already begun.

Murderera victim of sexual assault: defence

In a letter read by his lawyers, Jeffrey wrote that he was very sorry and wished he could turn back time. He said he has hurt his family and the Naglingniqs, and he doesn't know if he can ever face the horror of what he had done.

Jeffrey's lawyers asked that he serve the minimum of 10 years behind bars before is eligible for parole. Lawyer Susan Cooper told the court that even with the brutal nature of his crime, it is still important to put a human face on the person responsible.

Cooper said her client's uncle Levi had told her of Jeffrey's childhood in a home in which there was constant drinking and fighting. He was a victim of sexual assault as a child, Cooper said. He was about eight or nine years old when his father died in his arms of AIDS.

Jeffrey was smoking marijuana and conducting small-time drug trafficking in Grade 7. When he was kicked out of school, he began drinking and breaking into homes to get cash, the court was told. He was jailed twice within the last decade, once for a violent robbery and another time for drug trafficking. He developed a crack cocaine addiction at the age of 20.

Jeffrey was known for creating carvings and antler crib boards, the court was told. He was good at his job at a construction company but kept missing work because of his drug and alcohol problems.

The court was told that since being arrested in 2003 for Jennifer's murder, Jeffrey had spent six months in isolation at the Baffin Correction Centre before being moved to the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre, where he was attacked by five inmates and spent time in hospital. He has started taking a correspondence course to finish high school and will continue his studies once he returns to prison, the court was told.

Defence lawyer Michael Chandler told the court that the decision on Jeffrey's parole eligibility should be based on his capacity for rehabilitation, not on the severity of the crime.