Crown seeking 10-year sentence for boy who killed elderly woman in Pickering, Ont.

Community members in Pickering, Ont., are reeling after a 14-year-old boy was arrested following the fatal stabbing of an elderly woman outside her home yesterday. A small memorial to the slain woman is seen in Pickering on Friday, May 30, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sharif Hassan

The Crown is seeking a 10-year sentence for a 15-year-old boy who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in an unprovoked attack on an elderly woman in Pickering, Ont., last year.

Court heard that 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.

The Crown says he should receive the maximum youth sentence of six years in custody and four years of conditional supervision in the community.

The prosecutor says the sentence must be high because the murder has shattered the community and Doney’s husband of 63 years, and the boy still has little insight into why he carried out the murder.

The boy’s defence attorney suggests that giving him credit for the time he has already served in a youth detention facility could help his rehabilitation.

The judge is expected to deliver the sentence in an Oshawa, Ont., court on Wednesday.

The boy cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

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

The Canadian Press