A 15-year-old in Oshawa has been handed the maximum youth sentence by a judge for the tragic first-degree murder of a cherished grandmother in Pickering.
In a courtroom session on Wednesday at an Oshawa courthouse, Superior Court Justice Lisa Wannamaker ruled that the teenager, whose identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA), will spend five additional years in custody followed by four years in a supervised reintegration program within the community.
The YCJA stipulates that a maximum of six years in custody can be imposed as part of a youth sentence. Justice Wannamaker credited one year for pre-sentence custody.
The victim, Eleanor Doney, an 83-year-old grandmother and retired Kindergarten teacher, was fatally stabbed eight times while gardening in front of her Lynn Heights Drive residence on May 29, 2025. She succumbed to her injuries shortly after at a hospital.
The teen had previously pleaded guilty to first-degree murder during a court session in April.
As part of the sentence, the teenager is subjected to a lifetime ban on possessing weapons, must provide DNA for a national registry, is under a non-communication order, forfeited evidence seized during the Durham Regional Police investigation, and must comply with various conditions during the community reintegration phase.