'It didn't have to end like this': Teen gets 15-month jail sentence for fatally stabbing stepmom in heart

A Calgary teen who stabbed his stepmother offered an apology to his victim's familybefore he was taken away Friday to serve a 15-month jail sentence.

The young offender, who can not be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was 16-years-old when he killed his 33-year-old stepmother.

"It didn't have to end out like this, I wish everything was different," he said to her family. "I'm sorry."

• Teen who fatally stabbed stepmother in heart pleads guilty to manslaughter

On Friday afternoon,JusticeCharlene Anderson accepted a joint proposal from defence lawyer Jim Lutz and prosecutorsCarla MacPhailand GiannaArgento for a 15-month jail sentence plus another year of community supervision.

The victim's mother cried as she was given the chance to address the court.

"You took away my daughter," she said sobbing, speaking to the teen. "You took away my heart, you broke my heart."

Fight turns fatal

The fatal attack happened when the boy, his brother, girlfriend, mother, father and stepmother were all drinking togetheron May 31, 2016.

The group was at the home of the teen's mother when he and his stepmother began arguing around 11p.m.

The heated fight turnedviolent and the boy stabbed his stepmother once in the heart with a hunting knife, according to an agreed statement of facts read aloud in court during his guilty plea in February.

The teen and his girlfriend ran off while his mother called 911. Police and paramedics tried to revive the victim but she was pronounced dead.

In the early morning hours, police officers found the couple hiding under a tree near a park about 1.5 kilometres away.

Court heard the teen and his parents all suffer from addiction and alcohol abuse.

He has been in custody since his arrest on June 1, 2016, but received no credit for the time he's already served.

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