Families of victims address court at Legebokoff sentencing

Emotions ran high Friday morning as victim impact statements from the families of the three women and the teenage girl Cody Allan Legebokoff has been convicted of murdering were read into the record during a sentencing hearing at the Prince George courthouse.

They spoke not only about how the losses have affected their lives but, in the cases of Cynthia Frances Maas, Natasha Lynn Montgomery and Jill Stacey Stuchenko, sought to set the record straight about who they were.

Portrayed as drug addicts and sex trade workers during the trial, they were described as mothers and sisters whose warmth and laughter have been profoundly missed.

Dressed in black and clutching an eagle feather, as she had done when she sat in the gallery throughout the trial, Judy Maas stepped to a podium off to Lebokoff's side to tell of a sister, "Cindy," who "against all odds" graduated from private school.

"Cindy also decided that she was going on a school trip to China with the Christian Academy to deliver bibles, which opened up her world to other types of struggles," Maas said.