Appeal Court upholds parents’ conviction in son’s death
The Alberta Court of Appeal has upheld convictions against a couple who treated their toddler son with natural remedies before he died of meningitis.
David and Collet Stephan were found guilty last year of failing to provide the necessaries of life in the 2012 death of 19-month-old Ezekiel.
Their trial in Lethbridge, Alta., heard they treated the boy with garlic, onion and horseradish rather than taking him to a doctor.
There was testimony from a nurse, who was also a friend, who said she had suggested to the Stephans that Ezekiel could have meningitis.
The couple’s lawyer argued before the Appeal Court that the trial judge allowed the jury to be overwhelmed by medical evidence.
David Stephan was sentenced to four months in jail and his wife was ordered to spend three months under house arrest — the only exceptions being trips to church and to medical appointments. The two were released early pending the outcome of the appeal.
The Crown has indicated it will appeal the sentences as being too lenient.
Two of the three Appeal Court judges ruled in support of the conviction.
Writing for the majority Justice Bruce McDonald said Collet Stephan’s testimony showed she did tests for meningitis and ignored the positive results.
“If they were only to take the child to a doctor, this evidence supports the conclusion that they actively failed to do what a reasonably prudent and ordinary parent would do,” McDonald wrote.
Defence lawyer Karen Molle, who represented David Stephan, had argued the trial judge did not properly exercise his gate-keeping function regarding expert evidence and allowed too many Crown experts to testify.
She said the amount of evidence from three doctors unfairly distracted jurors from the real question of whether the Stephans acted differently than any other reasonable parent.
“We can’t undo the impression that these doctors left on this jury. The jury is emotionally reacting to ... a week-long barrage of inflammatory and emotional evidence,” she argued at a hearing in March.
Crown prosecutor Julie Morgan had told the hearing that the Stephans received a fair trial and that the jury heard evidence from both sides.