In two simple words, stepfather sums up disturbing murder trial
“Child murderers.”
For five weeks this spring, Brian Woodhouse sat silently in a Calgary courtroom, his arm around his wife, Kyla.
The pressure, he admitted on Wednesday afternoon, just became too much when the verdicts were read out against Spencer Jordan and Marie Magoon, the pair accused of killing his stepdaughter, six- year- old Meika Jordan.
There were a lot of things I wanted to do,” said Woodhouse after the verdicts that mean an automatic life sentence with no parole for at least 10 years.
“I wanted to yell, I wanted to scream, I wanted to be obscene and go across that courtroom.”
In the end, Woodhouse chose only those two damning words, ones that had been formally registered as fact by Justice Rosemary Nation moments earlier.
His outburst meant he had defied the judge’s request to rein in emotion while she laid out her reasons for determining both accused were guilty of seconddegree murder.
Still, no one in the courtroom seemed shocked or surprised when Woodhouse made the declaration, in a voice that was audible but far from a yell, as Magoon and Jordan were led out by court sheriffs.
That was understandable, considering the horrible details Nation reiterated for the packed courtroom — information gleaned from days the Woodhouses had chosen to sit out during the trial’s more graphic moments — on the child’s last three days of life, in a house where two other small children were present.
Providing an overview of her 38- page decision ( for the full judgment, go to the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta section on www. canlii. org), Nation offered up the key facts of Meika’s injuries, the actions of the two adults supposedly caring for the girl and her findings on their intent in order to explain the guilty finding on the lesser charge of second- degree murder.
For those who did attend those particular trial days, it was a stark reminder of the brutality inflicted on a defenceless child who had arrived at the couple’s house, only days earlier, in good health.
The “happy- go- lucky” girl would, three days later on Nov. 13, 2011, arrive at a Calgary hospital covered in bruises all over her body, a large third- degree burn on her hand and extensive abdominal and head injuries. Clumps of her blond hair, which her mother had earlier testified she loved to keep long and curly, were missing from her severely beaten head. She died the next day.
As Nation read out the physical evidence of Meika’s torture, many in the courtroom — with the media sitting in the jury box due to the standing- roomonly capacity — did their best to muffle sobs and shrieks.
Throughout the disturbing litany of abuses described, Jordan and Magoon wore the same expressions they’ve had through the bulk of the trial: Jordan, a groggy, slightly bored look; and Magoon, the stepmother who held Meika’s hand over a lighter so long it made the child scream in pain, beg for mercy and urinate on herself, the by- now familiar frown.
Nation rejected both defence lawyers’ contentions that the injuries their clients each inflicted were not- life threatening, their matching defences pointing the finger in the direction of fellow accused.
She blamed both for the torture, noting that dragging a child by the hair up and down stairs, punching her with full adult force ( Meika would have weighed around 50 pounds and stood at under four feet tall), as well as pushing her so hard she smashed her head on a tile floor, is something a person with common sense would know could lead to death.
Commending the extensive undercover sting operation — with several of those plainclothed officers in the courtroom — Nation nevertheless rejected the Crown’s contention that the child was unlawfully confined, something that would have supported the case for first- degree murder.
Although each accused “had clearly overstepped any authority they had to discipline the child,” Nation could not find support in Canadian case law that the child had been criminally confined, a decision that resulted in her conviction for seconddegree murder.
Outside court, Kyla and Brian Woodhouse stood before a wall of TV cameras, pledging that they would be back at court for sentencing and to read out their victim impact statements.
“We get justice for her, that’s what we’ve been striving for,” said the mom as she dried her eyes.
Her husband, backed up by his ever- present Bikers Against Child Abuse crew, looked a bit sheepish when asked by one reporter about his brief and uncharacteristic outburst at the court’s conclusion.
He didn’t, though, make any apologies.
“Guilty is guilty,” he said of the final word by the judge on this saddest of criminal cases. “You’re both child murderers.”