New trial date set in necessaries of life case

The trial for a woman accused of leaving her young child locked inside a freezing car while she and another woman drank at a nearby bar has been rescheduled to another date.

During a hearing recently in Lethbridge provincial court, the Crown prosecutor on the case said she wouldn’t be available for the March hearing and the trial was adjourned to April 30, 2018.

It’s the second time the trial has had to be rescheduled. It was first set to run in December but was adjourned after court was told a Crown witness would not be available.

The 31-year-old accused and a 25year-old woman, neither of whom can be identified, were charged last December with failing to provide the necessaries of life after police responded to a call about an unattended child crying inside a locked vehicle parked outside of a bar in downtown Lethbridge. Police said at the time the outside temperature was about -18 C and the vehicle was not running.

Police broke a window to get into the vehicle, and found a second young child under a pile of clothes. Both children were taken to hospital but didn't sustain any serious or lasting injuries.

Two women were found in a nearby bar and arrested. Video surveillance shows the women had been in the bar for more than an hour.

The younger woman pleaded guilty last month and admitted she left her three-year-old daughter in the vehicle. When police found her and the other woman drinking in a bar, she said she had forgotten the child was in the vehicle.

Police determined the mothers of the children had been in the bar for about an hour, which, according to a report by a pediatric specialist, was long enough that both children were sufferering from mild hypothermia. Neither of them suffered any longterm ill-effects, but the pediatrician stated in her report that it’s unclear how long they could have survived in the freezing vehicle and they were “clearly at risk” for severe hypothermia and frostbite, and even death.

The younger woman, who court was told has one previous conviction for failing to comply with a breathalyzer demand, is scheduled back in court Jan. 26 for a sentencing hearing. The case was adjourned to allow time for the preparation of a pre-sentence report with a Gladue component, which will take into consideration the woman’s personal circumstances and aboriginal heritage.