Calling it a case of “bullying to the extreme,” a Crown prosecutor said Monday, Nov. 3 in BC Supreme Court that second-degree murder convict Charlene Jane Alexander should be jailed for 12 years without parole.
Alexander fatally stabbed 26-year-old Jessie Mae Hayward-Lines in the chest outside the Prince George courthouse on July 2, 2020. Tyler Bowman told Justice Neena Sharma at the opening of Alexander’s sentencing hearing that the 59-year-old “carried out a purposeful and brutal act of violence,” against a gentle newcomer.
Hayward-Lines, he said, was “a vulnerable person who had done no more than refused to turn down her music in a public place where she had as much right to be as Miss Alexander.”
Hayward-Lines was prone to acting outlandishly, but otherwise gentle and she tended to direct anger at herself.
“Miss Alexander decided that she did not like Miss Hayward-Lines because of her music and her unwillingness to listen to Alexander’s directions, so she went and got her knife and stabbed to death in public and left her to die while, Miss Alexander fled and took steps to cover up her crime,” Bowman said.
Bowman said 14 years in jail without parole would have been a fit sentence, except for Alexander’s lack of criminal record and background as a residential school survivor who has experienced hardships, such as various forms of abuse.
Bowman called Alexander’s expression of remorse “superficial” and told Sharma that it should be given little to no weight. Bowman also said Alexander’s claims of being drunk were debunked at trial.
“Miss Alexander continues to refuse to acknowledge what she did, and she continues to claim she cannot remember the offence, which she blames on a level of intoxication inconsistent with this court’s findings at trial,” Bowman said.
Prince George outreach worker Kayla Hayward said she has a hard time being in the area around the Prince George courthouse, where Hayward-Lines — her cousin — was stabbed, before dying early the next morning in hospital.
In a statement she read in BC Supreme Court at Alexander’s sentencing hearing, Hayward told Justice Neena Sharma that Jessie-Mae saved her eldest daughter’s life after a Saint Bernard dog attacked her.
“I hope one day there will be some remorse, as I haven’t seen any,” she said.
Grandmother Irene Lindstrom bluntly described her feelings about Alexander: “I am so mad at her, I could bite nails in two.”
Lindstrom’s letter included a broken heart at the bottom.
Cousin Kelsey Hansen recalled seeing Jessie-Mae at the end of June 2020, when she came by to get some acrylic paint.
“She was very artistic,” Kelsey Hansen wrote. “Jessie-Mae and I went for lunch and hung out for a bit. Only if I knew that was going to be my last time with her.”
Mother Paula Hayward’s letter to Sharma said she remembered the phone call “no mother should ever receive” at 10:40 p.m. on July 2, 2020. An emergency room doctor said her daughter had been stabbed and she needed surgery without delay.
Paula Hayward waited patiently at hospital and lost track of time. Around 4 a.m.,“I got this cold, empty feeling, a total feeling of heartbreak,” she wrote.
A nurse came out to tell her how much of a fighter Jessie-Mae was, but “I noticed a sadness in her eyes.”
Later, a doctor sat her down and explained they had used 40 units of blood and there was no more available near Prince George.
“I remember hearing this blood-chilling scream as I dropped to the floor,” the grieving mother wrote. “I realize now the scream came for me.”
Hospital staff allowed Paula Hayward to sit with Hayward-Lines one last time. Mother told daughter how much she loved her.
“The doctor came over to talk to me,” she wrote. “I asked him, honestly, what her chances on life support were. He looked down and whispered, ‘zero.’ I then told them to turn off the machines. My daughter needed to rest. She fought enough.”
A police officer eventually approached. Paula Hayward had to leave without touching Jessie-Mae again.
“You see,” she wrote, “my daughter was now evidence.”
No matter how many years Sharma says Alexander must spend in jail, her mother wrote “I have the life sentence. I do not get to witness Jessie-Mae, in her happiness, have a child, fall in love, get married.”
The maximum penalty for second-degree murder is 25 years without parole.
Sentencing was delayed after Sharma agreed May 21 to a defence application for Alexander to undergo assessment to determine whether she was fit to continue. Defence lawyer Lisa Helps told Sharma on Sept. 4 that Alexander’s fitness had been established.
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