After years of claiming he remembered nothing about the murder of Luka Gordic, one of the young men convicted in the death shared vivid memories of what he described as the religious experience of killing the 19-year-old.

Crown lawyers said that reversal was one part of their argument that this young man and the two other convicted killers should be sentenced as adults – something that could put them in prison for life.

“I recall looking him in the eye,” the young man told a psychologist in December. “There was fear. And in an instant my life got bright. Everything around me glowed. I felt woke. That God slapped me in the face.

“Something super powerful gave me a punch in the heart—an electric shock of clarity. I came back down to earth. My knife was still in him,” the young man said.

As that passage was read out, a wave of shock went through the courtroom, and the 19-year-old victim’s father got up in distress and put his head in his hands.

“I can’t believe there are people that can do that kind of stuff,” Mitch Gordic told reporters shortly afterwards. “He knifed Luka’s heart. He’s looking at him. I don’t know, it’s hard to believe.”

His wife Clara Gordic said she was “speechless.”

“I can’t believe what Luka was going through. I can’t believe it,” she said.

There have been several heated moments in and out of the courtroom during the trial, during which the court heard that Gordic died in Whistler over the 2015 May long weekend after he was kicked and punched by a group of as many as 15 people.

The court heard that Gordic had expressed concern that the girlfriend of one man, Arvin Golich, was being abused. Golich was outraged and recruited several other teens to hunt Gordic down in Whistler via texts, e-mails and phone calls.

Golich has already been convicted of manslaughter in the death and was sentenced to 7 years in prison.

He was 18 at the time. But the young man convicted of the stabbing was 17 – just three weeks from turning 18.

The young man ‘was on the precipice of being an adult. He was weeks away,” said one crown lawyer.

The court heard this young man started abusing marijuana and Xanax from age 13 and was addicted to opioids briefly. The court heard he took these drugs to dull his sensitive to the violence that was also a regular part of his life.

He started selling marijuana and used crime to intimidate others, the court heard. He was found guilty of an assault that involved him and Golich stealing a woman’s cellphone as she walked away from a Skytrain station.

The court also heard he started robbing drug dealers and using guns. Robbery became a game between him and Golich, who would compete to see who could rob strangers more. He used baseball bats and brass knuckles, and by grade 10 was “fully involved in crime.” He was expelled from a public school, and continued his crime spree until the murder, the court heard.

“This is a picture of an egocentric, amoral young man full immersed in a violent subculture,” the crown said. “One cannot help but wonder if the candour he displays is the bravado of a young man who is still very much impressed with his gangster life.”

That history should be a big signal to the court that it’s time to sentence this young man as an adult, said Mitch Gordic.

“If the court doesn’t, something is wrong,” he said.

If the young man is sentenced as an adult, he will face an automatic life sentence and would have to serve at least seven years in prison before he'd be allowed to apply for parole.

If he is convicted of the same offense as a youth, the maximum prison term is four years with a three-year community supervision order.

Crown is expected to reveal more about the history of the other two being sentenced as the trial continues, and hear arguments from the lawyers of the young men.