SHOCK, HOPE AS CROWN APPEALS MEIKA VERDICT
It was a murder case almost too painful to even hear about, the victim at its centre an adorable six- year- old girl who was tortured to death for four days, a brutally beaten prisoner in the home of the man she should have been able to trust with her life.
When the trial of Marie Magoon and Spencer Jordan resulted in a guilty verdict on June 3, Kyla and Brian Woodhouse felt a rush of intense, conflicting emotions.
“We wanted to be mad, but we were happy,” says Brian, Meika Jordan’s stepfather, who sat through nearly every minute of the six- week trial and was there to hear Justice Rosemary Nation convict Magoon, Meika’s stepmother, and Jordan, the little girl’s biological father, of second- degree murder. “But we were mad at ourselves for being happy.”
Like the many others who packed a Calgary courtroom this past spring, they hoped for a firstdegree murder conviction. With the decision made, though, they were more than fully prepared to move ahead with their lives, the last hurdle still to come with Jordan and Magoon’s sentencing hearing on Sept. 18.
Then, something happened this week that neither Brian, nor Kyla Woodhouse, Meika’s mother, ever expected.
“We were sitting at home Wednesday evening, barbecuing burgers for the kids in the backyard,” Brian explains on Thursday afternoon. “I looked at the email on my phone and saw one from the Crown prosecutor’s office.”
The message informed the Woodhouses that the Crown would be appealing the seconddegree murder conviction to the Alberta Court of Appeal. “My initial reaction was shock,” says Brian. “We didn’t see this coming at all.”
A spokesman for Alberta Justice confirms that an appeal has been filed by the appellate unit, asking the court to substitute a conviction of first- degree murder for the second- degree conviction; however, no other comments or information on time lines will be released at this time.
The prosecution argued in court that because of the ongoing abuse, Meika had been unlawfully confined at the time of her death.
For Kyla and Brian, the shock soon gave way to jubilation. “We had resigned ourselves, we were coming to terms with the fact that they were at least convicted of murder,” says Kyla. “It was a perfect ending to what has been a long journey.”
Over six weeks I attended much of the heartbreaking trial, watching with admiration the dignity in the Woodhouses’ restrained disposition, the compassion and caring of their many family and friends, who included scores of tough- looking but kind bikers, members of the Bikers Against Child Abuse.
Speaking with them Thursday, one is reminded of that, but also given a window into what is required of those loved ones of a crime victim, the sacrifices necessary to see it to conclusion.
“You sit there the whole day, doing nothing but listening,” says Kyla, who excused herself only a handful of times during the proceedings, once when the extensive litany of her daughter’s injuries was being discussed. “You come home absolutely exhausted, your kids waiting for you.”
While a reliable crowd of supporters surrounded them in court each day, others worked behind the scenes to make their load less burdensome.
“I took six weeks off work — I’m the sole income earner in our home and there was no money coming in,” says Brian. “Friends and family volunteered to look after our kids, clean our house, make meals. I honestly think we could not have survived that process without the support of all those people.”
With the trial now completed and summer here, they’ve earned the right to enjoy some muchneeded rest. One thing, though, remains very much on their minds. “We’ve been preparing our victim- impact statements for more than two years,” says Kyla.
“I don’t know how many times I’ve written it out then tore it up,” says Brian, who came into the girl’s life when she was three years old. “How do you express how much something like this destroys a person, a family?”
Still, they are hopeful for the future, for the life they’re rebuilding after the ordeal of losing a child and defending her memory in court; and of the possibility that the Crown’s appeal will be successful.
“Guilty is guilty, we’re satisfied they’re not getting out any time soon,” says Kyla, “but we always felt it was first- degree murder.” Brian says he remains hopeful. “We’ve been told it’s a long process, but we’ll just sit back and wait for another pleasantly surprising email.”