Murder of Ken Lee in Toronto: 3rd minor pleads guilty to lesser charge

A third teenager charged in connection with the murder of a homeless Toronto man pleaded guilty Monday to a lesser charge of manslaughter rather than unpremeditated murder in youth court. In total, 8 minors are accused of stabbing Ken Lee to death downtown in 2022.

The teenager N^o 2, who cannot be identified due to his age, was 13 years old at the time of his arrest. She is one of the youngest in the group, the others being 14 and 16 years old at the time.

The teenager was dressed in a gray fleece tracksuit and a black sweater with a hood. Her hair was pulled back and tied into a bun.

His guilty plea provides another glimpse into what happened when Ken Lee was stabbed to death one December night in 2022.

However, it is difficult to explain her role without damaging the presumption of innocence of the five co-defendants or the impartiality of their upcoming trial.

For the purposes of the plea, the prosecutor, Mary Humphrey, read an agreed statement of facts in this case, but the press can only reveal the facts concerning minor N^o 2.

Agreed Statement of Facts

According to the Crown, the teenager N^o 2 met her co-accused around 9 p.m. on the evening of December 17, 2022 at the metro station Yorkdalein north Toronto.

Verbal and physical altercations with Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) riders will occur between St. George and St. Andrew stations, then at Union station, but the nature cannot be revealed.

It was 11:53 p.m. when the group gathered in a small concrete park near Union Station, at the site of the fatal confrontation with Ken Lee.

According to the Crown, the group attacked a friend of Ken Lee, Erica, who was staying at the Strathcona Hotel on York Street, transformed into a shelter during the pandemic.

Erica has a bottle of alcohol that some of the teenage girls in the group seem to covet. Ken Lee, who had been away at the hotel for a few minutes, came out and asked the group to stop bothering his friend.

It was at this time that the group of teenage girls attacked the victim. Mr. Humphrey specifies that the victim was attacked in three successive waves.

According to the prosecutor, the teenager N^o 2 struck the itinerant with his feet and his fists; she also attacked him with a wrench and her handbag, in addition to spitting on him during the first phase of the attack.

In the second phase, Mr. Humphrey adds that the teenager trampled Ken Lee when the homeless man was on the ground and that she chased him when he managed to escape from the group before hitting him again with his bag.

Finally, the teenager N^o 2 hit the victim in the back with vise grip pliers, when the 59-year-old victim found himself on the ground after the fatal stab to the chest.

Ken Lee suffered 19 blows to the face and body before being stabbed to death, but M^e Humphrey specifies that the blows of the adolescent N^o 2 did not cause her death and that she never had the murder weapon in her possession.

The group will be arrested during the night when the police become aware of an attack against a homeless person and seize videos from surveillance cameras in the park and the metro.

The police will discover an adjustable wrench, vice grip pliers, cayenne pepper and a Taser gun in the bag of the teenager N^o 2.

Testimony of the accused

Monday, in the witness box, the teenager N^o 2 did not dispute the facts. She admits that she was drunk that night, that she had consumed between 5 and 10 drinks of vodka, rum and whiskey and that she had smoked five joints with the group.

She also affirms that she accepted nothing in exchange for her plea, that no one forced her to do so and that she agrees to testify against her co-accused in a possible trial if the Crown asks her to do so.

His sentencing hearing will take place in late summer. She faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

Defense lawyers Leo Adler and Kevin Gray have already made it clear that she will not present the same position on this subject as the Crown.

The teenager N^o 2 is the third of the group to plead guilty to lesser charges.

A final accused, minor N^o 6, is expected to plead guilty next Monday to an unspecified charge.

Another member of the group, teenager N^o 5, has also changed her mind and she no longer wants to plead guilty as she suggested a month ago.

She appeared just after teenager N^o 2 to signify his withdrawal in the company of his lawyer.

This teenager will have to appear again on Wednesday to confirm her decision before a youth court.

If confirmed, she would be transferred to a higher court for a jury trial like three of her alleged accomplices.