Trial of Jeremy Steinke

Originally published  Nov 20, 2008 

The alleged accomplice of Canada's youngest multiple murderer (whose identity is protected by the Youth Offenders Act) is on trial in the last quarter of 2008. Jeremy Steinke's trial got underway in Calgary, Alberta, in the third week of November and was expected to last three weeks. Last year in Medicine Hat, Alberta the girl was tried, convicted, and sentenced to between six and ten years in a psychiatric facility. Now the Crown is proceeding against Jeremy Steinke, 25 (23 at the time of the murders) as the other person involved in killing a family in Medicine Hat in April of 2006. The Crown seems willing to concede that Jeremy Steinke was led to the plot by the girl, however. In the first few days of the trial the Crown showed that Jeremy Steinke admitted to drinking heavily and doing cocaine at the outset of the killing spree, and he said to an undercover police officer posing as a fellow prisoner that she (known as JR in Crown evidence, documentation) killed the 8 year old brother. The Crown submitted evidence that Jeremy Steinke did the killings, and presented audio tape of him admitting he was responsible for ending at least two of the three lives the night of April 22 and 23, 2006 in southern Alberta city. He was spurred on by a relationship with a pre-teen girl and deluded by her suggestions that were made sort of publicly on a goth cult website. An evil pact was openly hatched on the internet between the convicted JR and Jeremy Steinke, and it begs the question: how could he be proudly and brazenly plotting and executing first degree murder of three unsuspecting people in their slumber, and suddenly turn shy about it to a different yet equally public audience, this one a jury of six men and six women and the public in a courtroom? Perhaps Jeremy Steinke lacks the genuine conviction of his goth cult ways, or perhaps he was really led to murder by his love for a child. Everybody loves children, but murderous fools follow their direction. This may be the crux of Jeremy Steinke's defense, that he murdered in cold blood, yes, but reluctantly, and had tried, but failed, to talk her out of it. She spurred him on, as "I am a man of my word." The Crown prosecutors Ramona Robins and Brandy Shaw assert in their own words that this kind of delusion requires a minimum 25 years of close contemplation in a maximum security prison. Crown prosecutor Ramona Robins told the court that JR was "the motive and Steinke was the means." The Crown said the two socially networked on Nexopia. The girl was Runaway Devil; Jeremy Steinke went by Souleater. They had pictures posted of their faces glossed in white paste theatrical makeup and black eye liner. Halloween lasted all year for this pair. "Mr. Steinke would do anything for [JR], and that included participating in the planned and deliberate murders of her parents and little brother," said the prosecutor, as widely reported in Canadian news media. It was in a sublime audio taped interview (witnessed by a sheriff) in which Steinke said he tried to talk the girl out of the killings, "but she wouldn't have it that way." On the other hand he was likening his actions to a script from a movie, like he was acting in a version of  "Natural Born Killers." It got worse for undercover officer Const. Cory Both when Steinke talked about the killing of the mother first, followed immediately by a desperate struggle with the father. Steinke was matter of fact about disclosing the father's dying words, "Why?" to which Jeremy Steinke had replied, "Because your daughter wanted it that way." He apparently added something about the father mistreating his daughter. Apparently the girl "hated her parents for restricting her relationship with Mr. Steinke," the Crown said. The relationship went on-line, and all downhill from there, into "Rawr, I hate them. So I have this plan. It begins with me killing them, and ends with me living with you," as one message said, as posted by Runaway Devil, on Mar 20, 2006, 33 days before the murders. On Mar 21, 2oo6, the souleater responds, "Well I love your plan but we need to get a little more creative with like details and stuff." He seemed to be leading the drama as much as following according to his reply post on the internet. Why did Jeremy Steinke do it? "Because you love somebody enough, you'll do anything for 'em no matter what the consequences," he said to Officer Both in the interview conducted surreptitiously enroute to a psychiatric assessment. In the tape of the interview played to the court Steinke described breaking into the house through a basement window and launching into the mayhem that ensued. He said he stabbed the mother first when she came downstairs. She screamed and her husband ran down with a screwdriver, surprising the blood-drinking, drug addled intruder and inflicting a glancing blow to Jeremy Steinke. The goth vampire prevailed over the portly father and stabbed him to death. "He came barreling downstairs ... came at me real fast," Jeremy Steinke said on the tape. "Last thing I really remember was him ... laying on the ground asking me, "Why?," and I said, "Your daughter ... she wanted it this way." At this point Jeremy Steinke rallied with JR and they hunted down her little brother and he said she slit his throat. According to some reports the boy was first heard to say, "I'm too young." The crime scene was discovered the next morning by the young boy's neighbouring friend and the boy's mother, and she called police. Some witnesses (with up to 48 to be summoned in three weeks) have the goth couple celebrating the murders together from the outset, in fact, chomping down fast food, visiting friends, laughing and cavorting in the city on Apr. 24, and finally leaving with assistance from friends, whereupon police followed those leads to arrested the group Apr. 25, 2006 in Leader, Saskatchewan. "It was all her idea, but when someone you love asks you to do something, you do it." His idea was and possibly still is to run away to Germany and marry JR, save his money, buy a castle. Normal dreams for goth nightmare alleged multiple murderers who admit to drinking blood; presumably he's talking about human blood to Officer Both. The officer asked another question. Does Steinke think his girlfriend JR is crazy? "Yeah, she's f---ing crazy. I'm just a little bit crazy, but the drugs didn't help." "First, I would like to tell you a little bit about the City of Medicine Hat," said Crown Prosecutor Ramona Robins," who lives there, and is prosecuting the case in Calgary, "Medicine Hat is a small city of just over 60,000 people.  It is 300 kilometres southeast of Calgary. Medicine Hat has its own police force with just over 100 officers, including patrol crews and forensic identification units who are crime scene investigators." Entering the middle class multi-level home in the tidy neighbourhood on Apr. 23, 2006, the police discovered three dead bodies and a photograph with the victims. One person in the photo was missing. Const. Ian Scrivener of the Medicine Hat Police Service gave a description of the scene encountered by a team of officers. He found the 8 year old with an "obvious wound to his neck" and a knife found nearby in a bathroom. Elsewhere in the house officers found the father with a broken bloodied knife beside him and the mother laying dead in a pool of blood with the family dog barking endlessly. When it turned out the girl in a family photograph was absent the horrific crime scene, police heard she was spinning around town eating greasy food and necking with her boyfriend, and even bragging about being a murderer. The couple rallied with a trio of Goth teenager women from The Hat who cleaned up Jeremy Steinke's truck and helped them beat it out of town. The group of five were arrested the next day in the aforementioned Saskatchewan town. The two murderers were snuggling in the back of the truck under a canopy. The three goth accomplices to the escape were in the truck cabin. They were parked at a convenience store in the town. Police moved in on the truck bearing Alberta plates and arrested them all. They found a couple of knives and evidence including the slain mother's wallet. One of the other participants was convicted of obstruction of justice and received a sentence of probation for 20 months. The other accomplice faces charges of being an accessory to murder and has a court date this month December 2008. The Crown said forensic and DNA evidence points to Jeremy Steinke's involvement and would be admitted into evidence. Last year Paula Todd's had a guests on the CTV show The Verdict who said maybe this is could be vampire culture at work. Professor Stephen Kent, U of A sociologist, noted the internet environment has a number of sites devoted to vampire 'cult' and those places have people finding encouragement that fuels fantasies, perhaps even leading to bloody events like the alleged murder of three by Jeremy Steinke and his child accomplice in Medicine Hat. Background on the Case from Grok by xAIThe murders you're referring to occurred on April 23, 2006, in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. Twelve-year-old Jasmine Richardson (often referred to as "J.R." in legal proceedings to protect her identity under the Youth Criminal Justice Act) and her 23-year-old boyfriend, Jeremy Allan Steinke, plotted and carried out the stabbing deaths of Richardson's parents, Marc and Debra Richardson, as well as her eight-year-old brother, Jacob. The killings stemmed from the parents' disapproval of the couple's relationship, which they viewed as inappropriate due to the significant age gap. The pair was arrested shortly after fleeing the scene and has been the subject of extensive media coverage, books, and documentaries, including episodes of Deadly Women on Investigation Discovery. A mutual friend, Kacy Lancaster, was initially charged as an accessory to murder but pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in 2007, receiving one year of house arrest and a ban on drugs and alcohol. She is not considered the primary "accomplice" in most accounts and has maintained a low profile since.Current Status of Jeremy Steinke (Now Known as Jackson May)Steinke, who was 23 at the time of the murders, was tried as an adult and convicted in 2008 of three counts of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for 25 years, meaning his earliest eligibility date is December 15, 2031. He confessed to stabbing the parents but disputed details about Jacob's death during the trial. Steinke abandoned a planned appeal in 2016 while incarcerated, citing remorse in court statements (though he did not speak directly at sentencing). As of November 2025, Steinke (under his legal name change to Jackson May) remains in federal custody within the Canadian correctional system. There are no reported updates on parole applications or transfers in recent years, and he has declined media interviews through Correctional Service Canada. At age 42, he is serving his sentence at an undisclosed medium- or maximum-security facility, consistent with standard protocols for life-sentenced offenders.Current Status of Jasmine Richardson (the Primary Accomplice)Richardson, due to her age at the time of the offense, was tried under Canada's youth justice system. In 2007, she was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and received the maximum sentence for a young offender: 10 years, comprising four years in a psychiatric facility (for assessment and treatment) followed by six years of conditional supervision in the community. This sentence expired in full on May 7, 2016, when she turned 22. By mid-2016, Richardson had successfully completed all supervision requirements and was described in court reviews as "thriving" and a "poster child for rehabilitation." A judge lifted her curfew in April 2016, allowing her to live "as a normal individual in society." Post-release, she relocated (reportedly to Calgary, where she enrolled in university), changed her name for privacy, and has been out of the public eye. As of February 2025, she is believed to be living freely in Canada, with no further legal restrictions or reported violations. Her exact whereabouts and activities are protected under privacy laws, and she has not granted public interviews.Broader Context and LegacyThe case prompted discussions on youth justice, mental health (both perpetrators had diagnosed issues, including personality disorders), and parental oversight in teen relationships. It influenced minor changes to Canadian sentencing guidelines for young offenders but remains a stark example of familial violence. No major developments have occurred since Richardson's release, and the focus has shifted to ongoing rehabilitation narratives in media retrospectives. If new parole hearings for Steinke approach, they would be reviewed by the Parole Board of Canada, but nothing is scheduled publicly as of now.