Man who fatally beat girlfriend’s toddler son sentenced
He told siblings of victim he will take consequences
More than a decade after the crime, a former Calgary man has been sentenced to 5-1/2 years for the manslaughter death of his then-girlfriend’s two-year-old son.
On Tuesday, Ryan Podhorodecki, 34, was handed the sentence by Provincial Court Judge Paul Mason for the beating death of Blake Harvey, who died of a severe head injury.
The boy was found in medical distress at a Forest Lawn home Dec. 5, 2005, and died in hospital three days later. The accused at first told police the boy hurt himself while playing or falling down, but an autopsy pointed to homicide.
In an agreed statement of facts, Podhorodecki told an undercover officer involved in a “Mr. Big” operation that he assaulted Harvey after he and his siblings disturbed his sleep.
“He stated he slapped Blake twice on the head and twice on the buttocks hard enough that it hurt his hand, grabbed Blake’s face and squeezed hard enough that his fingers nearly touched,” says the statement.
It also said he pushed the boy’s head into a wall and folded his body in half, inflicting internal injuries.
After the beating, Podhorodecki said he went back to bed but was soon awoken by one of Blake’s brothers, who said something was wrong with the boy.
“Mr. Podhorodecki found Blake unconscious and not breathing … he performed CPR at which time Blake roused slightly and vomited. Blake then lost consciousness again,” reads the statement.
He then called his girlfriend, who phoned 911.
In 2015, charges were laid against Podhorodecki, who’d moved to Kelowna after Harvey’s death.
Last January, the man pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the case.
In handwritten letters to Harvey’s siblings, Podhorodecki told them they weren’t at fault for their brother’s death, and that he didn’t intend to kill the boy.
“I let my anger get the best of me and should of never hit Blake,” he wrote. “… My intention was only to discipline him so he would listen … I now have to man up and take the consequences for what happened to your brother Blake.”