Regina man who fatally stabbed 16-year-old ex-girlfriend loses sentence appeal

REGINA — A young Regina man who stabbed a former girlfriend to death with a hunting knife when he was 16 has lost his appeal of his adult sentence.

Last July, a judge sentenced Skylar Prockner as an adult after he pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of 16-year-old Hannah Leflar.

Prockner, who is now 20, got an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 years.

He had sought a youth sentence involving intensive rehabilitative custody.

The Court of Appeal has upheld the adult sentence, dismissing Prockner’s argument that the sentencing judge did not properly assess and weigh the evidence when making her ruling.

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Before he was sentenced, court heard that Prockner had trouble coping with being dumped by Leflar, who was an honours student and had been named the top of her class for Grade 10 just before her death.

Prockner stabbed her multiple times in 2015 after hiding outside her house and waiting for her to walk home from school.

“Mr. Prockner’s appeal must be dismissed,” Chief Justice Robert Richards wrote in ruling released late Wednesday.

“The sentencing judge’s assessment and weighing of the evidence is entitled to deference. She did nothing in relation to this issue that would warrant or justify the intervention of this Court.”

Prockner’s sentencing hearing was told that when Leflar started dating a different boy, Prockner hatched a plan called “Project Zombify” to recruit friends to help him attack the couple with bats and knives.

The attack never took place because Leflar and that boyfriend broke up, but the youth kept tabs on her. When Prockner saw she had a new boyfriend, he stabbed her to death in her home.

A second youth, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, was sent to rehabilitative custody for taking part in the fatal stabbing.

The judge in that case ruled his behaviour was abhorrent but did not merit an adult sentence.

The Canadian Press

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