Parents guilty in toddler son’s death
Calgary parents Jennifer and Jeromie Clark sat in stunned silence late Thursday as a jury found them criminally responsible in the death of their toddler son.
Jurors ruled the couple were negligent in not ensuring the child was properly nourished in the days and weeks before bringing him to the hospital less than 24 hours before he died.
They were both convicted of charges of criminal negligence causing death and failure to provide the necessaries of life.
The four-woman, eight-man jury rejected defence submissions doctors at the Alberta’s Children Hospital were somehow to blame for the child’s death.
Lawyers David Chow and John Phillips argued the toddler did not die as a result of his parents’ failure to obtain adequate proper and timely medical care.
Instead, they said, rapid sodium over-correction, over infusion of fluids, or both were the cause of the boy’s death.
Phillips urged jurors not to rely on a mob mentality when considering the couple’s guilt, or innocence. He said they should not just consider the Crown’s evidence before reaching a decision in the case.
“In our society we try not to just act like an angry mob grabbing at pitchforks and torches and heading off to the windmill to kill the monster all fired up by a story alleged by one side,” he said.
But jurors accepted the evidence from a parade of emergency doctors who testified little John was near death when he arrived at the Children’s shortly before 4 p.m. on Nov. 28, 2013.
The parents had taken the child to Foothills Medical Centre around 3:20 p.m. because he was lethargic and cold.
A doctor there immediately had him transferred to the children’s hospital, where he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit.
After two cardiac arrests John died a little after noon the next day after staff kept him alive until his parents could return to the hospital and say their goodbyes.
According to pathologist Dr. Elizabeth Brooks-Lim the boy died from a staph infection due to a skin condition and malnutrition.
Crown prosecutors Shane Parker and Jennifer Crews had presented a case suggesting the toddler should have been taken for treatment of his skin disorder/ bacterial infection long before Nov. 28.
They said the Clarks did not feed John properly, or give him regular medical checkups to ensure he was in good health until it was too late for doctors to save him.
In his final instructions to jurors before they began deliberations early Thursday afternoon, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Paul Jeffrey said jurors shouldn’t automatically conclude a crime had been committed simply because the child died.
“If you conclude Jennifer Clark and/or Jeromie Clark are not guilty of a criminal offence, it does not mean you agree with their decisions or actions, or that you condone some or all of their possible choices,” Jeffrey said.
The couple will remain on bail pending sentencing.