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The man who fatally stabbed Misha Pavelick more than 20 years ago has been 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 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.
Court was adjourned briefly after Dawson made the announcement that it would be a youth sentence. She had not yet given the length of the sentence. The maximum youth sentence for this crime is seven years — four years in custody followed by three years of supervision.
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.
Crown prosecutor Adam Breker and defence lawyer Andrew Hitchcock made lengthy sentencing submissions in early April, after which Dawson reserved her decision.
The 37-year-old has been 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.
