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Ashlee Hyatt killer denied early release

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"BOY CRAZY" GIRL'S BROTHER BANNED FOR PASSING HER DRUGS

The girl who stabbed and killed West Kelowna teen Ashlee Hyatt in June, 2010 just isn’t getting the message, according to a local judge who denied her request to get out of jail early.

The girl, now 19, applied to have the remainder of her 18-month jail sentence served in the community, not at Burnaby Youth Custody Services Centre, claiming that she's making progress. However in a decision posted Friday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Geoff Barrow cited prison reports that her brother snuck her drugs in prison and described her as “boy crazy” when he denied her request.

Barrow said both were specific factors leading to the stabbing in the first place—it came after an alcohol-fuelled fight over a boy—and proved she wasn’t learning her lesson.

"It is troubling that... those difficulties have involved these very two issues, namely, contact with male residents contrary to the rules of the institution and involvement with intoxicating substances,” Barrow said. "I am not satisfied that overall, her progress has been sufficient to warrant the relief she is seeking.”

Her name cannot be used because she was just 16 at the time of the offence and was tried as a youth. While some prison reports suggest she started out well in prison—resuming her education, getting counselling and support from her mother—that “deteriorated significantly” in August.

The youth prison has strict rules against male and female interaction but she was caught several times passing notes and is “very focused on seeing and writing to male residents.” It got worse by September as she was noted to be argumentative and rude to peers and staff.

"On at least one occasion, “two folded pieces of paper containing white powder and a plastic straw” were found in her room,” Barrow wrote. Her brother was banned from the facility for bringing her drugs, which she denied. But later, authorities intercepted one of her letters to a male inmate where she wrote her brother “would always bring me joints and smokes.”

She declined to explain that to authorities. Barrow noted in sentencing that the girl denied responsibility for Hyatt’s death and said she’s made “limited progress.” In her own words, counselling inside gave her "the chance to reflect and take a look at my actions that ended me up [sic] in the situation I’m in….”

RELATED STORY: What we can learn from the Ashlee Hyatt tragedy

To contact a reporter for this story, email Marshall Jones at mjones@infotelnews.ca, call 250-718-2724 or tweet @marshalljones23

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