A Winnipeg woman charged with manslaughter in the 2020 death of her two-year-old stepson is no longer facing prosecution, after the Crown determined there wasn’t a reasonable likelihood of convicting her anymore.
The update comes after provincial court Judge Don Slough ruled in February that the alleged confession made by the woman, who has a cognitive disability, was inadmissible and only came after police put her through hours of “psychological pummelling.”
Crown attorney Daniel Chaput said on Monday that following the judge’s ruling, prosecutors consulted the forensic pathologist who conducted the toddler’s autopsy.
They found that while the head injury that caused the toddler’s death was caused by a “strong, blunt force impact to the head,” the pathologist couldn’t rule out that it had been caused accidentally.
Court heard the now 24-year-old woman, who cannot be named because of a publication ban, was arrested in April 2020, more than a week after the toddler was rushed to hospital with a serious head injury while in her care.
The woman called 911 in the afternoon of March 24, 2020, later telling investigators she had been watching four young siblings on her own — including the toddler, who was the child of her then-partner — and had gone upstairs to get lunch for them when she heard a loud bang from the basement.
When she went back down, the woman said she found the toddler lying on his back near a bookcase, surrounded by books. He was unresponsive and bleeding from his nose and mouth, and his legs were stiff, court heard.
When first responders arrived, Chaput said, the woman provided “speculative explanations” about how the toddler may have injured himself by falling down the stairs or climbing and falling from the bookcase, but that she ultimately didn’t know what happened and couldn’t explain the injury.
The toddler was rushed to hospital where, two days later, medical care was withdrawn and he succumbed to his injuries, court heard.
“In the absence of a confession offering a non-accidental inflicted explanation for the injury … we are left in a factual vacuum upon which no argument can be crafted in favour of conviction,” Chaput told Slough in his explanation for why the Crown was staying the charge.
“At best, we’re able to establish that although the fatal injury is highly suspicious for inflicted trauma, there are possible accidental explanations for the injury — such as the short fall from a height, bookcase, stairs, multiple falls from stairs — which cannot be ruled out as the cause.”
The province has a year to the date charges were stayed to reinstate them.
‘Lengthy’ questioning by police
The woman was arrested by police and interviewed “over a lengthy period of time” on April 3, 2020, before being charged with manslaughter, Chaput said.
Under questioning, she allegedly confessed to police that she was responsible for the death, but later told court she did not have access to her medication for anxiety and depression, and was experiencing suicidal thoughts during the roughly 11-hour interview.
In March 2023, she was allowed to withdraw her guilty plea after a judge found she had not been fully informed of the consequences of that decision.
In Slough’s ruling regarding the woman’s police statement, the judge said the statement “was only obtained after [her] emotional breakdown following prolonged and aggressive questioning.”
Slough said statements made by an accused admitting to a serious offence would usually be critically important evidence in the Crown’s case, but that “given [the accused’s] significant vulnerability and suggestibility combined with the tactics of the police, her statements cannot be accorded the weight normally assigned to a confession.”
During her police interrogation, the woman told detectives she had suffered a serious brain injury in 2007 that left her in a coma for more than three weeks, according to Slough’s February ruling.
A clinical psychologist previously testified the woman has an IQ of 54, with a very low verbal comprehension level, and that her ability to understand abstract concepts is extremely limited.
The psychologist also said the woman has difficulty functioning on a day-to-day basis and that she is “more suggestible than the average person.” The expert also said research finds people who are highly suggestible or compliant are more likely to falsely confess.