Top court to hear appeal of Calgary couple convicted in torture and death of girl
The nation’s top court will hear arguments Monday by lawyers for a Calgary couple convicted of first-degree murder in the torture and beating death of a little girl.
Defence counsel Michael Bates and Brendan Miller will argue the Alberta Court of Appeal erred when it ruled Marie Magoon and Spencer Jordan murdered Jordan’s six-year-old daughter, Meika, while confining her.
The couple were originally convicted of second-degree murder by Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Rosemary Nation, but the Court of Appeal upped that to first-degree murder.
Miller said Sunday that, at most, the couple should have been convicted of manslaughter in Meika’s Nov. 14, 2011, torture and beating death.
He noted Nation determined neither meant for the girl to die as they disciplined her over a long weekend.
And Miller said the Alberta Court of Appeal erred in finding Meika was confined by Jordan and Magoon when she wasn’t returned to the care of her mother, Kyla Woodhouse, as part of their custody agreement.
“She finds that there’s no intent to kill, that they did not know the extent of discipline that was allowed to be given a child,” Miller said of Nation’s decision finding them guilty of second-degree murder.
Nation determined while Jordan and Magoon didn’t intend to kill Meika, they intentionally caused bodily harm they knew could cause death and were reckless when death ensued, which also amounts to murder.
Miller said not returning a child to a parent under a custody agreement is not unlawful confinement that could elevate second-degree murder to first-degree, but an offence of abduction in contravention of a custody order.
“The Supreme Court has made it clear that that offence is not committed against a child, it’s committed against the mother,” he said.
That section of the Criminal Code makes it an offence for a parent to keep a child in breach of a custody order “with intent to deprive a parent or guardian, or any other person who has the lawful care or charge of that person, of the possession of that person.”
Miller said while Meika was repeatedly abused by both her father and stepmother, she wasn’t otherwise forcibly confined.
“There’s no evidence she was restricted in her mobility between the assaults,” he said. “If there is to be any conviction, it should be a manslaughter conviction.”
The lawyer also said it was never decided who caused the fatal blow to the girl and there was insufficient evidence to rule the couple were working in concert to abuse the child.
“Our position is these people weren’t parties,” Miller said.
“There is no common agreement, no common intention.”
Magoon and Jordan were originally sentenced by Nation to life in prison without parole for a minimum 17 years.
When the appeal court upped the conviction to first-degree murder, ruling the child was confined, their parole ineligibility was automatically increased to 25 years.
In her ruling, Nation said the girl’s killing was “beyond comprehension.”
“Words cannot describe the egregious nature of this crime,” she said in her 2015 decision.
Miller expects the Supreme Court will reserve its decision.