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05/16/06
The Medicine Hat Murders By Lee Hanlon
Criminology Column, The Cascade News On Sunday, April 22, 2006 three people were found dead in their Medicine Hat, Alberta home. Marc and Debra Richardson, ages 42 and 48 and their son Jacob, aged 8. The accused, 23 year-old Jeremy Allan Steinke and his 12 year-old girlfriend, the daughter of the deceased were picked up without incident in Leader, Saskatchewan at 8:30 AM Monday, April 23, 2006. According to the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the girl cannot be named. Both accused are facing three counts of first degree homicide. As well, Steinke may also face sexual assault charges in relation to the 12-year-old accused. Both the girl and Steinke are involved in the Goth culture. And according to witnesses, both accused had personal web sites. The girl, known as "runawaydevil" wrote on her personal web site about her likes of death metal, hardcore and punk music. Steinke used the code name "thegenerallee01" and claimed to work in the government or military. If the 12-year-old girl is convicted, due to her age she will not be transferred to adult court. She will be sentenced in accordance with the principles and policies of the YCJA, and serve a maximum of ten years in a Juvenile Detention Centre. And upon release, her criminal record will be sealed. However, as Steinke is 23 years old, he will be tried in adult court. And if he is convicted, he will serve a life sentence. The YCJA will allow this 12-year-old girl to get away with murder. An honest to goodness three-for-one deal. Murder three people and only serve time for one. But not only that, do it under the age of 16, and after
serving a youth jail term, you get away with murder. No criminal record. The three-for-one deal also applies to adult convictions, which means Steinke will also get the three-for-one deal. This is how the three-for-one deal works: a person commits three offenses and is found guilty on all three counts. The judge sentences the accused concurrently, meaning two of the offenses are served at the same time as the first offense. Now, what's wrong with that picture?
Now to the dark side of this horrendous crime. Goth. Just listening to Toronto Goth.com columnist writer, Katherine Stancl, claiming Goth is not an evil thing makes my skin shudder. Ms. Stancl also claims that those that are into Goth are expressing their individualization. Then why do they all look the same? What is Goth? Goth, unashamedly celebrates the dark recesses of spirituality. In other words Goth is a form of a satanic religion. And any person in their right mind can sense that just by looking at a person who is a part of this satanic ritual called Goth. Just listen to the music of the Goth culture. At the time of this writing both accused have made their first court appearances so there are a lot of unanswered questions. Such as what was a 23-year-old doing with a 12-year-old? And what was a 12-year-old doing with a 23-year-old? And the most important question. Why were the 12 year old's parents and brother murdered? What was the motive behind the senseless, cold-blooded murders?