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15yr Girl in Delta beaten to death


key2thecup

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A memorial garden to Laura Szendrei at her school is being established:

Friends of North Delta teen Laura Szendrei are creating a memorial garden on the grounds of Burnsview Secondary school to celebrate her life.

The sloped garden will feature flowers, small shrubs, pathways and a plaque engraved with the words: "In loving memory of Laura Szendrei April 2, 1995 to September 26, 2010."

Some benches will be placed nearby, on either side, where students can rest and remember Laura and contemplate life.

"We really hope that it's a good place for students to gather and remember and sit in the sunshine," said 16-year-old Heather Schmit, a member of the Green Griffins, the group that designed the garden.

Laura was assaulted in a wooded area of Mackie Park on Sept. 25, 2010.

She was heading to a football game at an area high school when she was attacked in broad daylight. She was taken to hospital but died a day later, and her death shook the school and the community.

An 18-year-old North Delta man was later arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the beating death.

The group has been working on the design of the garden for months. In April, some of the girls, armed only with shovels, managed to get the garden started but it was a tough slog piercing through dense grass to reach soil, which is really just gravel.

To finance the garden, the group staged a number of fundraisers and collected donations at a walk held last September to honour the slain teen's memory, when their project caught the eye of Brian White, president of the Laura Szendrei Memorial Scholarship Foundation.

White later visited the garden site and decided the girls desperately needed some help. On behalf of the foundation, he donated $5,000 for the garden project to pay for soil, flagstones and rental of an excavator.

On Saturday and Sunday, members of the Green Griffins and numerous volunteers will be at the school making the garden, and members of the community are welcome to drop by.

White invites the school's neighbours to "bring a shovel or rake and a wheelbarrow, or just come down and bring some lemonade, that would be good, too."

He said the garden is going to make a nice gathering spot for students and a fine legacy for Laura.

Kirsten Martin, a member of Laura's soccer team, says Laura made such a huge "imprint" at the school with her sparkling personality.

"She was happy and joyful all the time," said Heather who shared several classes with Laura.

"She deserves this, she was the sweetest girl I ever met," said Allison Shields, an elementary school pal.

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Teen+murder+victim+Laura+Szendrei+remembered+with+schoolyard+garden/5072522/story.html#ixzz1RXkwjgpO

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  • 1 year later...

The youth charged with the first degree murder of Laura Szendrei has now pleaded guilty to second degree murder and a hearing will be held in July to determine if he is to be sentenced as an adult or a youth. If an adult he gets life (parole eligibility in 7 years) but as a youth a maximum of 7 years.

The young North Delta man who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 2010 beating death of Burnsview Secondary student Laura Szendrei made a brief appearance in Surrey provincial court on Monday.

He will be back in court on July 15 for the beginning of a four-day hearing where lawyers are expected to argue over whether he should be sentenced as an adult or youth. Meanwhile, his name cannot be published, by court order, as the Youth Criminal Justice Act shields his identity. He was 17 when Szendrei was killed.

Originally charged with first-degree murder, he pleaded guilty plea to the lesser charge last year.

Szendrei died in hospital on Sept. 26, 2010, one day after she was viciously beaten in broad daylight while walking along a path in Mackie Park forest, in the 8200-block of 110th Street in North Delta.

She was 15 years old.

If sentenced as an adult, the young man’s sentence will be life in prison without eligibility to apply for parole for seven years.

If sentenced as a youth, he faces a seven-year sentence, with a maximum four of those years to be served in prison and the remainder in the community, under supervision.

Typically, adults convicted of second-degree murder get a life sentence with no eligibility to apply for parole for 10 to 25 years.

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Laura+Szendrei+killer+appears+Surrey+court/7982054/story.html#ixzz2LOFXjfDs

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