Judge to decide whether young killer goes to federal penitentiary or N.W.T. jail

The final chapter is about to close on the three-year prosecution of a man who murdered a young mother in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T.

A judge willdecide whether Keenan McNeely will serve his life sentence in a federal prison or a territorial jail.

Now 21 years old, McNeely was within a month of his 18th birthday when he beat 23-year-old Charlotte Lafferty to death and sexually assaulted her.

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At a hearing held Tuesday morning, he appeared in a black T-shirt and jeans, often leaning back in his chair with arms crossed staring down at the defence table as his lawyer argued for him to serve his time in an N.W.T. jail.

A federal parole official one of two people who testified at the hearing said Corrections Canada uses a short test, based on an offender's crime, sentence and ageto determine whether that person should be housed in a minimum, medium or maximum security prison.

Rebecca Austin said McNeely scored 175. Offenders scoring 134 or more are housed in maximum security institutions.

But McNeely's lawyer, Charles Davison, described the test as "rigged," pointing out that it does not take into account offenders' past behavior in jailand attempts to better themselves.

Davison said his client is worried about being recruited by gangs if he is sent to a maximum security federal prison.

"As a young Aboriginal man, especially someone serving a sentence for violence, the gangs would certainly want to get hold of Mr. McNeely," Davison said.

He argued that serving his time in the N.W.T. would allow McNeely to have regular contact with his family and improve his chances of rehabilitation.

But the deputy warden of the North Slave Correctional Centre in Yellowknife said counselling and other programing at the jail is designed for people serving sentences of two years or less.

"We just don't have programs geared to his length of sentence," Scott Mills said in court at Tuesday's hearing. Mills says he's been working in corrections in the Northwest Territories for 17 years and has never heard of anyone serving a life sentence in a territorial jail.

Davison countered that a co-operation agreement between the N.W.T. government and Corrections Canada would allow McNeely to be periodically sent to southern penitentiaries for the intensive programming doctors say he needs.

At the end of the hearing, the judge said she wished to reserve her decision until Sept. 12.