Warrant issued for man who starved daughter
O’Dea failed to show up at his sentencing hearing for manslaughter
A Brampton man convicted of starving his 21-month-old daughter to death was a noshow at his sentencing hearing Friday and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.
Frank Brian O’Dea’s defence lawyer, Kurt Wildman, told a Brampton court Friday he has not heard from his client, who has been out on bail since soon after his 2015 arrest, and all efforts to reach him have failed.
“I’m not able to say where Mr. O’Dea is and why he’s not here,” Wildman said.
O’Dea had participated in his trial up to July 29, the day he was convicted of manslaughter in the April 20, 2015, death of his daughter, Victoria O’Dea.
The girl’s father, 42 at the time, was originally charged with criminal negligence causing death. The charge was upgraded after a forensics report found the girl’s cause of death was malnutrition and dehydration.
O’Dea insisted that his daughter had been fine up until her sudden death in their Pappain Avenue apartment. That account was contradicted by medical evidence that showed that the child had reached a severe degree of malnourishment and dehydration over a prolonged period of neglect.
O’Dea has been wanted by law enforcement since he missed an August appointment with a probation officer who was preparing a pre-sentence report in advance of Friday’s hearing.
On Friday, Superior Court Justice Deena Baltman opted to proceed with sentencing submissions in O’Dea’s absence. “I feel there is sufficient material before the courts,” she said. “So, we’re going to go ahead.”
In an emotional victim impact statement, Victoria’s mother wrote how she has to “relive the horror” of the “tragic death of a child who never reached her second birthday.”
In the Crown’s submissions, prosecutor Michael Morris asked the court to find that the girl’s slow and painful death was so egregious, it is “close to murder” and calls for a harsher sentence.
The toddler’s decline happened over several weeks due to “vicious selfish reasons,” while O’Dea was embroiled in a family court battle with the girl’s mother, Morris said. He added that doctors testified, “her life could have been saved if she was brought to medical attention even days before she died.”
The circumstances call for a sentence of 20 years, Morris said. Wildman, meanwhile, argued his client deserves somewhere between 10 and 16 years.
At the hearing Friday, the judge rejected Wildman’s request to be removed as O’Dea’s counsel after the lawyer suggested he could not proceed without proper instructions from his client. Baltman noted that Wildman had already submitted written arguments on behalf of his client, suggesting he had received sufficient instruction.
Reiterating his reluctance to offer oral submissions in the absence of his client, Wildman argued O’Dea has no criminal record and said that before his daughter’s death, O’Dea also provided a period of care in his time having custody as a father “that does not dovetail with abuse.”
Baltman is scheduled to issue her sentencing on Oct. 1.