Teen who killed grandmother in random attack still relishes violence despite apology, court hears
During his months in custody since stabbing an 83-year-old woman to death in a frenzy of unprovoked violence outside her Ontario home, a teenager was involved in a fight after which he declared he “hasn’t felt this alive” since he committed his murder.
His apparent deficit in remorse while relishing violence was highlighted by Crown prosecutors at his sentencing hearing on Tuesday.
Eleanor Doney, whom many friends and family called Ellie, was raking leaves outside her home in Pickering, just east of Toronto, on May 29, 2025, when she was attacked by a 14-year-old boy dressed in a black shiny trench coat, a black COVID-style mask, black gloves, overly large dress shoes and carrying a briefcase.
Because of his young age, the identity of the killer is protected by law and cannot be published. In April, he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.
In court Tuesday, the boy stood up inside the prisoner’s box and slowly unfolded a sheet of paper he pulled from the dark suit jacket he wore over a white shirt and addressed Justice Lisa Wannamaker.
He apologized to court and said people learn from knowledge.
“I’ve learned from this,” he said, asking that the murder not define who he is.
The bizarreness of the encounter and the viciousness of the attack were captured on a neighbour’s doorbell camera. The boy is seen stopping and talking with Doney for a couple of minutes before pulling a knife from his briefcase and repeatedly stabbing her as she tried to retreat into her house.
He then continued walking down the street. A community warning was issued until the boy was identified to police by school administrators and arrested that night at his home.
At his sentencing hearing, both the Crown and the boy’s defence lawyer jointly asked for the maximum sentence allowable under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, which is a 10-year sentence, split between six years in custody and four years of conditional supervision in the community, under an intensive rehabilitative custody and supervision order. Such an order is for enhanced rehabilitative programming for youth with serious mental health issues who committed serious crimes.
The two lawyers differed, however, on whether the year he has already been in custody waiting for his sentencing should be deducted from his sentence to be served.
Crown prosecutor Tammi D’Eri said the Crown had planned to ask court to have the boy tried and sentenced as an adult, but various psychological reports suggested they would not meet a new Supreme Court of Canada requirement of first proving a young offender had an adult-like maturity at the time of the offence.
Mental health problems and psychosocial deficits of the boy meant that hurdle likely could not be met, although he had suitable written and verbal skills and interactions with teachers and others.
“This was a completely unprovoked, random, extremely violent attack on an innocent woman cleaning up her yard on a spring day,” D’Eri said at the hearing which was packed by Doney’s family and friends, the boy’s parents and siblings, and journalists.
“This brutal attack occurred in Ms. Doney’s yard in the middle of the afternoon, a place where she was entitled to feel safe and likely did feel safe.”
D’Eri said the boy’s sentence must promote a sense of responsibility in him and acknowledge the harm done to the victims and the community.
She said it was “highly concerning” the boy displayed little insight into his violence and was inconsistent in his explanation for it. She said he continues to show persistent preoccupation with violence and serial killers.
He has also been the subject of several behavioural incident reports from the facility where he is incarcerated, she said, including an altercation with another resident which staff broke up.
After the incident, court heard, the boy said he “hasn’t felt this alive” since he murdered Doney.
This, D’Eri said, supports the Crown’s position that his risk of re-offending continues and that a lengthy sentence is necessary to try to address underlying issues, and that his time already served should not be deducted from his sentence to lengthen this process.
The Crown also asked for a lifetime weapons ban and an order to take his DNA for the government’s DNA bank.
Erin Dann, the boy’s lawyer, agreed her client committed a horrific, pre-meditated murder causing deep and lasting hurt to many people.
She asked that the boy be granted a year’s credit from his time already spent in custody. She said it would increase the likelihood he remains in a youth facility until his conditional release, which she said would aid his rehabilitation. Young offenders can typically remain in a youth facility until the age of 20. If he serves the extra year requested by the Crown, he will turn 21 before release and might be transferred to an adult prison.
By the time his sentence is complete, Dann said, it will be 2035 and his sentence period will account for more than 41 per cent of his life: “This is a considerable sentence for someone so young,” she said.
Her client has “high needs” for mental health treatment and psychosocial assistance for his rehabilitation and that five years in custody is a long time for someone his age, Dann said.
She said he has a “good capacity for rehabilitation.” He was assessed at a low to moderate risk to violently reoffend and that dropped to “likely low if his mental health is properly attended to and monitored.”
Dann said psychological assessments suggested his serial killer obsession and a lack of remorse and empathy likely stemmed from mental health problems and are not fixed attitudes.
“Because these risk factors relate to mental health concerns, there’s real potential here for rehabilitation and reintegration if properly addressed,” Dann said, and the youth facility, where he is engaged with the treatment programming, is the best place to meet that need.
Court earlier heard of the boy’s dark fixations .
Police seized two cell phones and a computer from his home that uncovered his vast online activity and intense interest in murder, serial killers, psychopathy and an obsession with a fictional serial killer from a Japanese comic book called Yoshikage Kira, as well as the real-life serial killer Ted Bundy.
It was the characteristics of the cartoon character that apparently influenced his unusual dress for a 14-year-old on the day of Doney’s murder.
On Tuesday, the boy sat quietly and mostly still in court listening to the detailed discussion of his history, behaviour, difficult upbringing, and mental health.
Court also heard that on the day before the stabbing, school officials had caught the boy with a knife and suspended him for five days. During two medical assessments prepared for the boy’s court appearances prior to his guilty plea, he told psychologists he had a fluctuating “urge to kill” in the weeks leading up to his attack.
There were 18 victim impact statements given to the judge.
The victim’s husband, Bruce Doney, said he and his wife had been together for 63 years and he misses her greatly and is looking forward to seeing her again in heaven, as both are devout Christians.
“I used to enjoy working in the garden with my wife with the flowers stretched over a couple of ponds and the songs of birds which returned to the birdhouse. Now it’s like a little bird has flown into a closed window and was killed. I can only put it now in a place where it rests, is buried and marked. I’ll never forget that little bird that I spent 63 years with,” Bruce Doney told court.
He requires a wheelchair and has significant vision loss, and his wife was his primary caregiver. He has since sold the home where Doney was killed.
He said he has forgiven his wife’s killer but still feared that if he is released from custody, because of his mental state, he would hurt someone else. “I wish the best for him,” he wrote, but also hopes the teen receives the treatment needed to prevent him committing other crimes in the future.
Brian Kirwin, Doney’s son-in-law, called the boy’s attack “cowardly” and “calculated.”
“By the heinous act committed it not only shattered Eleanor’s life but so many Eleanor had deeply impacted. This was all taken away in an instant for the utter senselessness of nothing short of cold-blooded murder…. The fear/worry/terror that was caused lasted, and still lasts, to this day. Safety and peace were stolen, not just from us who knew Eleanor but to all of our community and beyond. What is left is anxiety, stress, pain, hurt and fear.”
Jeff Doney said the violence that ended his mother’s life makes grief harder to cope with.
“The emotional impact of losing my mother has been profound and life-altering. Her death was sudden, violent, and hard to understand. She was attacked in front of her own home — a place where she should have felt safe and protected. The fact that her life was taken by a young offender is something I still struggle to make sense of,” he told court. “My mother was a sweet, gentle person whom everyone loved. She had a strong Christian faith that guided the way she lived her life. Helping others wasn’t just something she did — it was who she was.”
Judy Kirwin, Doney’s daughter, said her mother was her mentor and closest friend and support. “The loving relationship I enjoyed with my Mom was abruptly torn from me. I was violently robbed. Robbed of the chance to be with her at the end to say goodbye…. I am crushed and recoil in horror that Mom was left alone to die and found in front of her home by a neighbour. She was robbed of her dignity as a greatly loved human being.”
The hearing is scheduled to continue Wedenesday when Wannamaker is expected to deliver her sentencing decision.
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