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The man who fatally stabbed Misha Pavelick more than 20 years ago is being sentenced as a youth.
Pavelick was 19 years old on May 21, 2006, when he was stabbed during a graduation party at the Kinookimaw Campground near Regina Beach, about 45 kilometres northwest of Regina.
The man convicted of killing Pavelick is now 37 years old, but was 17 at the time of the incident.
Justice Catherine Dawson delivered her decision to sentence him as a youth on Monday at Regina Court of King’s Bench. It means the man’s identity remains under a publication ban under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Dawson explained that under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, a youth is presumed to have diminished moral blameworthiness for their actions. For the youth to be sentenced as an adult, the Crown has to rebut that presumption beyond a reasonable doubt.
A Regina King’s Bench judge reserved her decision on whether the man convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Misha Pavelick will be sentenced as a youth or an adult. Justice Catherine Dawson is set to deliver her decision on May 26, more than 20 years after Pavelick, 19, was fatally stabbed at a campground near Regina Beach.
Dawson said the Crown had not overcome that “heavy burden,” which is the first part of a two-pronged test used when considering whether a youth should be sentenced as an adult.
“I must examine his personal development at the time of this offence,” Dawson said, not the 37-year-old man as he is now.
That makes it difficult, she said, as she could only look back in time via documents relating to for other offences the man committed as a youth, including convictions for assault causing bodily harm and dangerous driving.
Those documents and the evidence provided at trial do not provide a clear indication that the man was acting as an adult, and in some cases show the opposite — an immature, irresponsible youth who was susceptible to peer pressure and being supported by his parents, Dawson said.
She said that because the Crown had failed the first prong of the test, she was not able to consider the second, which is whether a youth sentence would be of sufficient length to hold the young person accountable for his offending behaviour.
Dawson admitted that if she were to proceed with that prong, she would be hard-pressed to find the maximum youth sentence for second-degree murder — seven years with four years in custody followed by three years of supervision — to be justifiable.
She reserved her decision on the length of the sentence until Tuesday. She will also decide on whether the man’s time in pre-sentence custody will be credited.
Crown prosecutor Adam Breker urged Dawson to not provide the man any credit, saying he was placed in custody as a result of his own actions.
Breker explained that the man had been released on bail by consent after the charges were laid, but that the 37-year-old had then failed to attend court for the start of his preliminary hearing.
The hearing continued without him and, on its third day, the man walked into the courtroom like nothing was wrong.
The man was then arrested and charged with failure to attend court and assaulting a peace officer, Breker said. Those charges are still pending.
Breker urged the judge to not reduce the sentence any further, saying doing so would not reflect the gravity of the offence.
Defence lawyer Andrew Hitchcock disagreed, urging that Dawson credit the man for one year, eight months and 13 days that he’d spent in pre-sentence custody.
Dawson will also have to impose a mandatory DNA order on the man as part of the sentence and will have to decide on the length of a weapon prohibition, which must be a minimum of two years after the custodial sentence.
A sentencing hearing is underway at Regina King’s Bench for the 37-year-old man who stabbed 19-year-old Misha Pavelick to death 20 years ago, when he was also a teen. The Crown seeks an adult sentence.
A 12-person jury found the man guilty of second-degree murder in November 2025 after hearing testimony from more than 30 witnesses and seeing evidence including photos, DNA analysis and an autopsy report.
Breker and Hitchcock made lengthy sentencing submissions in early April, after which Dawson reserved her decision.
The 37-year-old has remained in custody since the verdict.
The Crown had sought an adult sentence, which would have resulted in a life sentence with no chance of parole for at least seven years. It would also have meant the man’s identity would have become public for the first time.
Breker previously told court that no matter what the judge decides, the man will serve his sentence in an adult penitentiary.
He said a youth sentence would have no benefit for the man in 2026, other than the shorter length of the term he will serve.
Hitchcock argued that documents filed in court showed the man had a propensity to be “unduly influenced by his peers” when he was a youth, and evidence given by a psychiatrist and psychologist indicated that kind of behaviour is much more pronounced in a youth than an adult.
