Canada's immigration and refugee board began a hearing Friday to decide whether a 19 year-old who served time in a youth detention centre should be sent back to his native Congo.
In 2005, the teenager and three other youths shocked the province when they were convicted of beating a 65-year-old woman with her walker, stabbing her and stealing her purse and her car.
The teen, who can not be named under Canada's Youth Protection Act, was recently released from a youth detention centre.
Immigration Canada will now rule on whether he should be deported to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the country from which he was adopted at age nine after witnessing the death of his mother and other relatives during the African nation's second civil war.
Though he was adopted into a Canadian family, he is not a Canadian citizen.
While Canada routinely expels non-citizens found guilty of serious crimes, young offenders are usually exempted. In this case, however, the boy was sentenced as an adult.
"I had no idea that what I did would cost me my life here," he told CTV's Stephane Giroux.
"I'll do anything to turn my life around for a chance to stay."
Street gang experts testified against the teenager, saying he had taken part in extensive criminal activities, including drug dealing and violent assaults.
