Justice Rosemary Nation has found two people charged in the 2011 homicide of six-year-old Meika Jordan guilty of second-degree murder.
Spencer Jordan, Meika’s father, and Marie Magoon, her stepmother, were originally charged with first-degree murder in the girl’s death.
In November 2011, Meika was taken to the Alberta Children’s Hospital but died from blunt force trauma and abdominal injuries.
Both Jordan and Magoon admitted to abusing the girl in a video taken during an undercover ‘Mr. Big’ sting operation.
In the video, Jordan admitted to spanking and punching the girl. “I know I spanked her. I know that I pushed her on Saturday -- pushed her really hard. She hit her head really hard. I know I punched her Sunday morning. I punched her really hard. I didn't hold back. I know that I would have made her run the stairs or do jumping jacks every day that week. I know Marie probably would have probably spanked her.”
According to records, the girl was abused for four days by both of the accused and suffered multiple injuries before she was taken to hospital.
Justice Nation took about 40 minutes to read the verdict and said both of the accused delivered blows to the child that could have been fatal.
Family members and those in the gallery wept as the Judge read over the list of abuse suffered by Meika.
Meika Jordan's mother and stepfather, Kyla and Brian Woodhouse, were in court for the verdict.
“It’s not what we were hoping for. We pushed for first-degree from the beginning. We knew it was going to be a long, hard road to get to. Second-degree is not what we wanted but ultimately guilty is guilty. They lose a few years of their life, we lost her,” said Brian Woodhouse.
“Whether it was first-degree, second-degree, regardless, as long as it came down to a guilty verdict we get our justice for her and that’s what we’ve been striving for for the last almost four years now,” said Meika’s mother Kyla.
Defence lawyer Allan Fay says he is disappointed but not surprised by the outcome.
“Any party going into a process like this has certain expectations and hopes. The Crown expected and hoped for a conviction on first-degree, they were disappointed. I hoped for manslaughter, I was disappointed,” said Fay. “No, I wouldn’t say I was surprised. I certainly felt it was within the realm of possible verdicts. From the beginning of this process I never believed that first-degree was appropriate.”
Crown prosecutor Susan Pepper says they will be seeking sentences for the pair that are near the maximum.
“The only difference between second-degree murder and first-degree murder is that for second-degree murder we have to go in and argue about what period of parole eligibility will be given so in first-degree murder it’s an automatic 25 years. In second-degree murder the period could be anything from 10 to 25,’ said Pepper. “Because of the heinous nature of this case and certainly we haven’t read the judgment yet but the oral judgement from Justice Nation, she did say what she found as fact and those facts that she found are very heinous so we will be taking those facts and using that to argue that the period of parole ineligibility should be at the significant end, the high end of the scale.”
Jordan and Magoon will be sentenced on Friday, September 18, 2015.
