Mom of tot strangled by car seat ‘completely shattered’
Day home operator Elmarie Simons took away a perfect life from a Calgary couple when she allowed their little daughter to be strangled in a car seat, court heard Monday.
In a victim-impact statement read by dad Ryan McGrath, the father said Simons’ conduct on the day 18-month-old Ceira McGrath died was “cold-blooded.”
Simons pleaded guilty last week to criminal negligence causing death after she left the toddler in a car seat for more than five hours.
The child choked to death when she struggled to get out of the seat, which had been placed in a walkin closet in Simons’ southwest Calgary residence while she went shopping.
The still-grieving dad said he was struck by the fact Simons asked him not long before Ceira’s death about why his daughter rarely giggled.
“The question struck me as strange instantly and I’ll forever regret not removing her and (her twin brother) Colby from you that very day,” he said.
“Because at home, Ceira was the happiest little girl. Learning, exploring, playing and excited for life. Her giggles made your heart melt and they were very frequent,” he said.
“I suppose it’s hard to hear a young girl giggle when in fact she’s screaming and fighting for her life in a dark closet and you’re at Walmart. So there’s your answer. Horrific to even think about it for a millisecond.
“You’ve taken a perfect life away from us and you are still here. Disgusting.”
McGrath said he initially thought of making his victimimpact statement 51/2 hours long “so you could experience how brutally and excruciatingly a long time that is.
“Especially for a frightened, alone, distressed and helpless little girl just wanting to be free and out of her imprisoned darkness; our poor, sweet Ceira having to fight for her very life.”
Mom Tanya Gladwell said losing her daughter was like losing her own life, calling Simons “an evil person.”
“When I found out that my perfect little daughter that I had so desperately wanted all my life was taken from me by Elmarie, it was like my life ended that day along with Ceira,” Gladwell said.
“I am completely shattered.” The girl’s grandfather told court her death has ripped the family apart.
“What torture to have her killed after only the tiniest taste of what she would be adding to our lives,” Les McGrath said.
“We hear week after week the painful details of lives gone far astray from normal and this horrible destruction lies at the feet of only one person. One horrible, callous, cruel monster.”
Simons also addressed the court, apologizing for her actions.
“I am not the monster you think I am,” she said. “She was a special little girl and I took that away from you. I am so sorry.”
In sentencing submissions before provincial court Judge Jim Ogle, both Crown prosecutor Pam McCluskey and defence counsel Alain Hepner agreed the appropriate sentencing range is two to four years in a federal penitentiary.
But McCluskey is seeking the top of that range, while Hepner proposed the bottom.
Ogle will attempt to render a sentencing decision May 1.