Boy who killed elderly woman in Pickering, Ont., apologizes during sentencing hearing

A 15-year-old boy who pleaded guilty to murdering an elderly woman in Pickering, Ont., last year apologized in court on Tuesday for the unprovoked attack, as the Crown and defence lawyers agreed he should receive the maximum youth sentence of 10 years.

An Oshawa, Ont., court heard the boy repeatedly stabbed Eleanor Doney, an 83-year-old grandmother and retired kindergarten teacher, as she was cleaning up her yard in May 2025 and left her for dead.

When the boy, who cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was offered a chance to speak, he rose to his feet in the wood-panelled prisoner’s box to apologize for the harm he caused to Doney’s family and the Pickering community.

Wearing a dark suit, the boy said he was “very sorry,” and added that he wanted to learn from his actions.

Crown attorney Tammy D’Eri said the murder shattered Doney’s husband of 63 years, forcing him to move from the couple’s home into a long-term care facility. Doney was also a cherished mother, friend and mentor who “so clearly lived out the teachings of her Christian faith,” the prosecutor said.

The Crown argued the boy should receive the maximum youth sentence of six years in custody and four years of conditional supervision in the community. The prosecutor said the boy still has little insight into why he carried out the murder.

Doney felt safe in her own yard on that spring afternoon before the boy, who was 14 at the time, struck up a conversation and brutally attacked her, the Crown said.

Defence lawyer Erin Dann agreed the maximum sentence of 10 years was appropriate but suggested that giving the boy credit for the year he has already served in a youth detention facility could help his rehabilitation while still holding him to account.

That recommendation is not an attempt to take away from the seriousness of the crime, the lawyer said.

“By committing this inexplicably horrific offence, (the boy) brutally killed an elderly woman for no reason whatsoever while she was in front of her own home,” Dann said.

Community members now feel unsafe in their homes or when a loved one is cycling in the area, she said.

Because he was in Grade 8 when he murdered Doney, the boy will never set foot in a high school, Dann said, and his sentence will make up more than one-third of his life by the time it is complete.

The judge is expected to deliver the sentence on Wednesday.

“This is obviously a very significant and serious case, and I want to give it the attention it deserves,” Ontario Superior Court Justice Lisa Wannamaker said, adding she will spend hours on her decision.

She took note of Doney’s loved ones in court, as well as the boy’s parents and siblings, and thanked them for attending Tuesday’s hearing.

“It’s not an enviable position for anyone in this courtroom to be in,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 14, 2026.

Elissa Mendes, The Canadian Press