Judge refuses Todorovic's request to stay in youth jail

[Locutus]

TORONTO - On the eve of Christmas, what a gift it is to witness the system finally working as it should.

Not even a master manipulator like Melissa Todorovic could pull the strings of a Superior Court judge. She may have been able to convince her sex-starved boyfriend to kill for her, but Justice Ian Nordheimer was certainly not going to do her bidding.

And so the chilling, remorseless killer was denied her request to stay in kiddie jail where she’s achieved Platinum status for her good behaviour and sunny participation in clubs such as Crocheting for Haiti and Walking a Million Steps. As soon as she turns 20 on Jan. 7, she will be shipped out to Grand Valley Institution for Women as the law requires.

Our tender young murderess will finally have a taste of what it’s like to do real adult prison time for orchestrating the cold-blooded execution of 14-year-old Stefanie Rengel.

The wise judge was not swayed by the glowing reports of Todorovic’s straight As in graduating high school or of her willingness to set up hygiene programs for other residents at the Roy McMurtry Youth Centre. She was also getting 90s and being a “model daughter” when she was orchestrating a murder at the age of 15.

“Her faultless conduct while in custody mirrors her conduct prior to the offence,” Nordheimer wryly noted. “The concerns remain the same.”


more


Judge refuses Todorovic's request to stay in youth jail | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun

 

[mentalfloss]

It looks like an article, but reads like an Op Ed.

 

[petros]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxCPj40eFNc&feature=related

 

[shadowshiv]

TORONTO - On the eve of Christmas, what a gift it is to witness the system finally working as it should.

Not even a master manipulator like Melissa Todorovic could pull the strings of a Superior Court judge. She may have been able to convince her sex-starved boyfriend to kill for her, but Justice Ian Nordheimer was certainly not going to do her bidding.

And so the chilling, remorseless killer was denied her request to stay in kiddie jail where she’s achieved Platinum status for her good behaviour and sunny participation in clubs such as Crocheting for Haiti and Walking a Million Steps. As soon as she turns 20 on Jan. 7, she will be shipped out to Grand Valley Institution for Women as the law requires.

Our tender young murderess will finally have a taste of what it’s like to do real adult prison time for orchestrating the cold-blooded execution of 14-year-old Stefanie Rengel.

The wise judge was not swayed by the glowing reports of Todorovic’s straight As in graduating high school or of her willingness to set up hygiene programs for other residents at the Roy McMurtry Youth Centre. She was also getting 90s and being a “model daughter” when she was orchestrating a murder at the age of 15.

“Her faultless conduct while in custody mirrors her conduct prior to the offence,” Nordheimer wryly noted. “The concerns remain the same.”


more


Judge refuses Todorovic's request to stay in youth jail | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun

I'm glad to hear it. She deserves to be in an adult prison, and it's just a shame that she will more than likely be out on parole in 2012(or was it 2013?).

 

[Ariadne]

This woman seems like a dangerous person that preys on those that she can coerce ... be it through reconizing stupidity in others or a situationally learned familiarity with their areas of expertise.

It was said that she was learning to be assertive in her junior prison ... where apparently the staff were unaware that assertiveness was never a problem. She was in prison because, at the age of 15, she coerced a lovesick-dead-puppy boy to murder a 14 year old girl simply because he had met her once in his short life. He was 14 years old. He got 10 years, she got 7. I hope she isn't allowed to have a laptop to finish her science degree in prison ... what are the chances of that happening? She preyed on others to do her dirty work, and for her, dirty work was murder. I don't think she has been rehabilitated if experts are encouraging her to be more assertive.

 

[spaminator]

Mastermind in Rengel's murder wants conviction tossed

By Michele Mandel ,Toronto Sun

First posted: Tuesday, November 26, 2013 08:50 PM EST | Updated: Tuesday, November 26, 2013 09:09 PM EST
TORONTO - The jealous young mastermind behind her boyfriend’s vicious murder of teen Stefanie Rengel wants her conviction overturned and her adult sentence thrown out.


As it is, Melissa Todorovic is eligible for parole in just 13 months for ordering the 2008 stabbing of her 14-year-old “rival.” But that’s still not soon enough for her.


Todorovic, ever the manipulator, will ask the Ontario Court of Appeal Wednesday to believe she was just joking when she bombarded David Bagshaw with hundreds of texts urging him to kill his former flame or there would be no more sex between them.


Her lawyer will argue that she wasn’t really “the puppet master” at all, that her messages were misinterpreted and taken out of context.


A jury, however, found otherwise on March 20, 2009.


After her unrelenting eight-month campaign of phone calls, 50,000 MSN messages and thousands of text messages filled with sexual blackmail, Todorovic’s lovesick boyfriend finally lured Rengel, the daughter of a police officer, from her East York home on New Year’s Day 2008. After stabbing her six times in the abdomen, he left her to die in a snowbank and rushed to Todorovic for his sexual reward.


Within hours, both Bagshaw, 17, and Todorovic, 15, were under arrest for a sick and twisted murder plot that claimed the life of the innocent girl. Both were convicted of first-degree murder under the Youth Criminal Justice Act but sentenced as adults. Bagshaw, who has already lost his appeal, is serving life with no eligibility for parole for 10 years while Todorovic can apply after just seven.


How lucky for them both.


Todorovic gave two incriminating statements to police in which she admitted telling Bagshaw she wanted Stefanie dead, knew he went over to her house with a knife and then called him 15 minutes after the murder to ask, “Is she dead?”


But in court papers, her lawyer Brian Snell argues that detectives failed to clearly explain her rights to have a lawyer present and so her statements shouldn’t have been admitted at her trial. Snell also insists that when Todorovic told police she didn’t expect Bagshaw would take her seriously, she was telling the truth.


In its court filing, the Crown contends that in Todorovic’s first police interview, detectives considered her a witness, not a suspect, and she knew she could leave at any point. It was only when she surprisingly admitted asking Bagshaw to “do it” that the interview was stopped and she was placed under arrest. At her second interview, the Crown says Todorovic waived her right to have a lawyer present.


But even if her police statements were admitted in error, the Crown argues that Todorovic would still have been convicted. The case rested largely on the “powerful evidence” of her text and phone call records before, during and after the murder in which she “encouraged and/or counselled him to kill Stefanie with the intention that he do so.”


If they lose their conviction appeal, Todorovic’s lawyer is asking that her adult sentence be overturned.


Nordheimer refused to sentence her as a youth, saying the “horrific” and “unfathomable” murder she orchestrated suggested “a character flaw that is frightening in its prospects, especially if it is not properly diagnosed and treated.”


And it’s doubtful she has sought treatment.


Before turning 20 in January 2012, Todorovic fought an unsuccessful bid to remain in the Roy McMurtry Youth Centre where, the judge noted, she was still not taking any counselling. Rengel’s family doesn’t know if that has changed.


In May they were given a positive prison “report card” on Todorovic’s current stay in the adult system, but were told that counselling is considered “medical” information, which is private.


“I think that when a person commits cold-blooded premeditated murder, he or she should no longer expect to enjoy the great privilege of all our Canadian human rights,” complained Stefanie’s mother, Patricia Hung, on her blog.


“What I want more than anything is for David and Melissa to acknowledge their responsibility, work on the very serious issues they must have and to heal so that no other family ever has to face what we are facing by their hands.”


But by seeking this appeal, it appears clear Todorovic isn’t doing any of the above.
Mastermind in Rengel's murder wants conviction tossed | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Another sound argument for the death penalty.

 

[spaminator]

'Puppet master' in Stefanie Rengel killing granted escorted day passes
Admits she was responsible for egging on boyfriend to murder teen


By Sam Pazzano, Toronto Sun
First posted: Friday, May 27, 2016 06:33 PM EDT | Updated: Friday, May 27, 2016 11:16 PM EDT
KITCHENER - Melissa Todorovic, the “puppet master” who orchestrated the jealousy-fuelled murder of Stefanie Rengel, has moved one baby step closer to parole.

A parole board hearing Friday granted Todorovic a one-day escorted temporary absence pass to attend a Brampton half-way house for anger management counselling.

Todorovic, who is currently serving a life sentence for the “unprecedented” first-degree murder of the 14-year-old East York girl, admitted at Friday’s hearing that she’s responsible for the Jan. 1, 2008 slaying.

“David Bagshaw wouldn’t have acted if I hadn’t continually egged him to do that. He wouldn’t have done it otherwise,” Todorovic, now 24, told board members Derek McElveny and Brian Mullins.

Her then-boyfriend Bagshaw fatally stabbed Rengel on Jan. 1, 2008 outside her home.

Todorovic, who was five days shy of her 16th birthday when the murder happened, broke down in Friday’s hearing as she explained she first understood “the suffering” Rengel’s family was experiencing when she read a February victim impact statement from Stefanie’s mother, Patricia Hung.

Hung — who attended Friday’s hearing — told the parole board that she agrees with trial judge Justice Ian Nordheimer that the “puppetmaster” Todorovic is more culpable than Bagshaw.

“Manipulation is her forte and anyone evaluating her behaviour should be aware of this,” said Hung, who retired this year after 25 years as a Toronto Police officer.

“There isn’t a day that goes by that we are not haunted by her actions. The impact of losing Stefanie is endless.

“We hope (Todorovic) gets help because we know one day she will be released.”

In 2009, Nordheimer imposed an adult sentence on Todorovic, then 17, saying, “a person who plans and orchestrates and directs another person (Bagshaw) to take the life of a human being is at least as morally culpable as the person who does the actual act.

“The master is more culpable since he or she puts the wheels in motion and then stands back under the facade of disassociation while the scheme that they have created unfolds,” said Nordheimer.

Todorovic ordered her boyfriend to murder a 14-year-old girl she had never met by engaging in a relentless, eight-month campaign of pressure, Nordheimer said.

Bagshaw, who is now 26, who was offered and received sexual favours from Todorovic for killing Rengel, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 2009. Bagshaw, who turned 18 four days after killing Rengel, is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole until 2018.

spazzano@postmedia.com
Melissa Todorovic convicted March 20, 2009, in the New Year's Day 2008 stabbing of Stefanie Rengel.

'Puppet master' in Stefanie Rengel killing granted escorted day passes | Toronto

 

[spaminator]

Woman who pushed killer boyfriend to murder teen receives unescorted passes
Sam Pazzano Courts Bureau
Sam Pazzano Courts Bureau
More from Sam Pazzano Courts Bureau
Published:
November 29, 2017
Updated:
November 29, 2017 8:46 PM EST
Melissa Todorovic, convicted of persuading her boyfriend to kill 14-year-old Stefanie Rengel.
KITCHENER — Melissa Todorovic admitted Wednesday that she was excited by the power she wielded over her boyfriend who murdered a 14-year-old girl to appease her and win sexual favours.
Todorovic, 25, made two other stunning admissions at a parole hearing as she sought — and received — three unescorted three-day passes in the next nine months.
Todorovic, who was 15 at the time of the crime, revealed that she asked then-boyfriend David Bagshaw to kill at least two other girls she saw as rivals.
Both Todorovic and Bagshaw — who pleaded guilty — are serving life sentences for first-degree murder in the New Year’s Day 2008 slaying of Stefanie Rengel.
Stefanie Rengel, 14, Toronto’s first homicide victim of 2008. was stabbed New Year’s Day.
Todorovic was convicted in 2009 for ochestrating Rengel’s murder and was sentenced as an adult to life in prison with no chance of parole for seven years — the maximum sentence for a 15-year-old.
Todorovic said she was consumed with intense jealousy and anger and had low self-esteem as she commanded her 17-year-old boyfriend to lure Rengel outside her East York home, and stab her, leaving the girl to bleed to death in a snowbank. Bagshaw returned to Todorovic’s home to celebrate with sex — as Todorovic had promised, the panel heard.
“I wanted to see how far I could push this guy. I manipulated him into doing what I wanted,” Todorovic told the panel at the Grand Valley Insitution for Women in Kitchener. “It was a game we would play continuously.
David Bagshaw, convicted of killing 14-year-old Stefanie Rengel in 2008.
“I feel like I’m a monster for telling someone to kill someone. I wanted to take it back so badly, taking an innocent girl’s life,” said Todorovic, who added she wanted to “push David as far as I could” so that she could be happy.
“The power and control was an aphrodesiac for you to accomplish your goal?” suggested panel member Kevin Corcoran, a former homicide investigator. She agreed.
Todorovic also divulged that she asked her previous boyfriend before Bagshaw to kill a girl simply because he was conversing with her.
“My thinking at the time was that if (the girls) were out of the picture, I could be happy with my boyfriend,” she said.
Melissa Todorovic, convicted of persuading her boyfriend to kill 14-year-old Stefanie Rengel.
The parole board panel approved Todorovic’s absences to a halfway house, saying Todorovic has worked to manage her jealousy, anger and manipulation.
“While there’s still lots of work for you to do on yourself, you are moving in the right direction,” panel member Lynne VanDaylen, a former warden, told Todorovic.
Todorovic and Rengel had never met but Todorovic grew intensely jealous of Rengel, who had a brief friendship with Bagshaw two years earlier.
Todorovic said Wednesday that she didn’t feel she had done anything wrong until she was arrested.
“When I saw it on the news, I felt guilt then, but I didn’t really understand the impact,” she said.
Her parole officer, Angie Strome, said Todorovic initially displayed a lack of insight and empathy but made “significant gains” after losing her appeal at the Ontario Court of Appeal in 2014.
Victim’s mother says she wants murderer ‘to be well’
Murder victim Stefanie Rengel’s mom said she regarded killer Melissa Todorovic’s troubling admission that she wanted two of her boyfriends to murder romantic rivals as a good-news, bad-news revelation.
“That’s scary on one hand. And yet, the fact she actually admitted it is progress,” said Patricia Hung, a retired Toronto police officer with 25 years service.
“I really want Melissa to be well. Otherwise, someone else is going to be hurt,” she added. “We can’t bring Stefanie back. And the way the system works, both Melissa and David Bagshaw will get out one day.
“And when that day happens, you hope they’ll emerge as whole as possible. With Melissa, though, I always question how genuine she is,” said Hung.
Todorovic revealed at her parole board hearing in Kitchener that she implored David Bagshaw and an earlier boyfriend to kill a few girls she perceived as threats to her relationship.
Hung missed Wednesday’s hearing because — as a volunteer chair of a victims’ advisory committee for Correctional Service of Canada — she was speaking in Oshawa.
“For me, it has always been doing something good for the future — that’s why I’m involved. But rest assured, I will be there when Melissa goes for actual parole,” said Hung.
Hung was alarmed when told that Todorovic divulged that she had some jealousy issues over fellow inmates who were just platonic friends.
“That she still has jealousy issues is disturbing,” she added.
spazzano@postmedia.com
Woman who pushed killer boyfriend to murder teen receives unescorted passes | Toronto Sun