The Granby girl’s stepmother is appealing her guilty verdict and sentence.
Found guilty of the premeditated murder and kidnapping of the child on December 9, the 38-year-old woman had 30 days to appeal the decision and she ran out of time.
The jury had only taken five hours to pronounce the verdict. The accused admitted having added layers of adhesive tape to the child, which was already covered in several layers.
On December 17, she was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for 13 years. The minimum required is 10 years in the case of an unpremeditated murder, but Judge Louis Dionne considered that the aggravating circumstances surrounding this crime, in particular the fact that the victim was a child in a vulnerable position, did not allow him to ‘go to the minimum, as demanded by his lawyer.
The magistrate, however, had not followed the Crown’s request, which called for a minimum sentence of 15 to 18 years. As for mitigating circumstances, Judge Dionne had pointed out the remorse of the accused and the low risk of recidivism.
He also sentenced the lady to four years in prison for forcible confinement, but this sentence was not added to the previous one.
The father sentenced to four years
The father, meanwhile, had quietly pleaded guilty to the charge of having kidnapped the child on December 13. He was the one who initially wrapped the girl in duct tape before leaving the home. Judge François Huot sentenced him last Friday to four years in prison, a relatively heavy sentence for a charge of this nature.
By pleading guilty to the count of forcible confinement, the 32-year-old however freed himself from the much more serious charge of criminal negligence causing death, an offense which could have resulted in his imprisonment for life.
The child’s death shocked the province, going so far as to call into question the entire youth protection system.
The Legault government had created a commission to analyze the child protection system, chaired by Régine Laurent.
A coroner’s inquest, which will be chaired by Me Géhane Kamel, must also take place on a date which remains to be determined.