A judge has rejected a bid by the “puppet master” behind the murder of 14-year-old Stefanie Rengel to serve her life sentence in a youth jail for another year rather than transfer to a federal adult prison.

Referring to a “frightening” character flaw that Melissa Todorovic has not begun to address, Ontario Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer said Thursday “the concerns remain the same as they were 2½ years ago.”

It is in Todorovic’s best interests to serve her sentence among adults, he said.

In July 2009, Nordheimer gave Todorovic, then 17, an “adult sentence” for goading her boyfriend, David Bagshaw, into stabbing Rengel outside the victim’s East York home on New Year’s Day 2008.

He imposed a life term with seven years parole ineligibility for the girl he called the murder “puppet master.”

At age 15, Todorovic was obsessively jealous of Rengel, whom she had never met but regarded as a romantic rival.

Over eight months, through conversations, phone calls, text messages, Facebook ramblings and MSN web chats, she waged an unrelenting campaign to pressure Bradshaw into killing the Grade 9 student.

Todorovic turns 20 next month, an age when most youth inmates are transferred to a federal prison.

Todorovic’s lawyer, Brian Snell, argued Thursday she should remain at the Roy McMurtry Youth Centre in Brampton until she turns 21 rather than transfer, as scheduled, to the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener.

Remaining in the youth jail would allow her to take a biology correspondence course with Athabasca University in Alberta, Snell said.

Staff at McMurtry, where Todorovic is highly regarded, have made extraordinary steps to help her take the course, which requires such equipment as a laptop computer, test tubes and Petri dishes, Snell said.

Grand Valley is overcrowded and staff there are not keen to help in that regard, he said.

Dressed in a pink top, Todorovic listened quietly from the prisoner’s box.

She graduated high school with straight A’s and has made great progress at McMurtry, where she maintains a Platinum Level — the highest for inmates — and has been a positive role model, Snell said.

Vanessa Thibideau, Todorovic’s primary worker at the youth jail, said she not only participates in programs but has created some of her own.

“Ms Todorovic has always been in what appears to be great moods,” Thibideau said.

But Crown prosecutor Robin Flumerfelt said Todorovic’s so-called compliant behaviour in the youth jail mirrors her demeanour when she engineered Rengel’s murder.

“She was an A student when she talked David Bagshaw into walking all the way to Stefanie’s house with a knife in his hand.”

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She has refused to take part in any treatment that would identify that “frightening element in her character” that allowed her to mastermind the murder, he said.

Stefanie’s mother, Patricia Hung, father Adolfo Rengel and brother Ian were in court, along with many friends and family.

Todorovic’s mother, Rachel, and father, Zoran, were also present.