Kevin Goforth files appeal of sentence

Fifteen years too severe, he says, following conviction in girl’s death

Separated by prisons in two different provinces, Kevin and Tammy Goforth have now both filed appeals arising from their convictions in the death of a four-yearold Regina girl and harm suffered by her younger sister.

For Kevin, 40, the issue is not his conviction, but his lengthy sentence.

“To (sic) high in range for the offense,” he wrote in a brief note. “The sentence to (sic) acsessive (sic) and such further grounds as may be advanced.”

At a trial earlier this year, a jury found Kevin guilty of manslaughter in the death of a four-year-old girl and unlawfully causing bodily harm to her two-year-old sister. On March 4, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Ellen Gunn sentenced him to 15 years in prison, but when given credit for his pretrial custody and “house arrest” while under strict bail conditions prior to trial, the term is reduced to 14 years. The usual range of manslaughter sentences in this province is about four to 12 years.

Kevin is housed at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert.

His 39-year-old wife Tammy filed an appeal of her conviction and sentence one week earlier from a women’s prison in Abbotsford, B.C. Convicted of seconddegree murder, she was given a mandatory life sentence, with eligibility to seek parole set at 17 years. She received concurrent time on the bodily harm charge.

During the trial, court heard Social Services placed the sisters, who cannot be identified under a publication ban, in the care of the Goforths under a permanent guardianship arrangement. A little shy of nine months later, both girls were emaciated, malnourished, dehydrated and bruised. The four-year-old was brain-dead after suffering a heart attack and taken off life support on Aug. 2, 2012. Her sister was treated and is now a thriving six-year-old.