By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

A Yarmouth County teen originally charged months ago with attempted murder has been sentenced to 15 months probation for public mischief after admitting that he had made the whole thing up.

Last November the 15-year-old youth, who was 14 at the time, awoke his great-grandmother and told her that he had just tried to kill her by giving her an overdose of insulin using a hypodermic needle.

But the story turned out to be just that, a story.

The boy had concocted the incident so he could go live with his mother instead. He was being raised by his great-grandparents.

But without knowing at the time that he was lying, the incident “created quite a scare,” Crown Attorney Pierre Muise said in youth court on Monday after the teenager pled guilty to public mischief.

The boy’s great-grandmother, a diabetic, immediately went to the hospital to be checked out and monitored. Her insulin levels had not changed.

It was later discovered that the only vial of insulin she had at home was intact.

“What he told her he did, he had actually not done,” Muise said, calling the situation bizarre.

The Crown offered no evidence and withdrew the charges of attempted murder and assault with a weapon after the teenager entered the guilty plea to public mischief.

A report presented to the court suggested the teen is dealing with emotional problems relating to feelings of abandonment and low self worth. The judge said it was clear the boy requires intervention and intensive counseling.

Still, his actions did end up having the teen’s desired outcome since the court ordered that he go and live with his mother, who lives outside of the jurisdiction.

“The passage of time has allowed their relationship to foster,” the boy’s lawyer, Tim Landry told the court.

Should this living arrangement not work out, however, the court said the boy is prohibited from living with his great-grandparents, at their request.

During his probation period the boy must abide by a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. The court also ordered a DNA sample and prohibited the teen from owning or possessing firearms for a period of 10 years.

Aside from pleading guilty to public mischief, the teenager entered guilty pleas to a string of other unrelated charges including damage to property, break and enter, theft and taking a motor vehicle without consent.

The teen committed two break and enters at the Windlass Restaurant with other co-accused. The theft charge related to two firearms – a shotgun and a semi-automatic rifle – that he stole from a family member’s locked cabinet after removing the hinges from the cabinet. He sold the firearms because he needed cash.

The teen has been in custody on remand at the Waterville youth facility since his arrest last November after the incident involving his great-grandmother. This time in custody worked out to the equivalence of about seven months in custody since people are given extra credit for the time they spend in pre-trial or pre-sentence custody.

“How’d you like Waterville?” Judge Robert Prince matter-of-factly asked the teen, whose identify is protected by the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

The boy said he didn’t like it.

Judge Prince then warned the teen that he now knows what to expect should he continue to rack up criminal convictions. He wished the teen – who prior to his March 3 sentencing had no criminal record – good luck in staying out of custody in the future.