Crown calls for 9-year sentence in baby death

A Crown prosecutor asked for the court to impose a nine-year sentence on a man who was found responsible for the death of his infant daughter roughly a decade ago.

The man’s lawyer argued that a four-year sentence would be more fitting.

Keifer Mecas, 34, was convicted of manslaughter in the death of his 11-week-old daughter, Haelin Taylor, after standing trial in Brandon’s Court of King’s Bench in April.

Justice Scott Abel found that Haelin’s death was caused by the application of significant force and an acceleration, deceleration event.

On Tuesday in court, Crown attorney Jennifer Neufeld referred to evidence from one of the expert witnesses who testified during the trial, saying that the most likely explanation for the infant’s injuries was “violent shaking.”

“What the experts testified to was that she suffered significant physical trauma. One of the ways that this was described was that it was trauma of a magnitude comparable to a high-speed car accident,” Neufeld said.

The infant was rushed to the Brandon Regional Health Centre on Jan. 4, 2016 in critical condition and was later transported to the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, where she died on Jan. 23, 2016.

Haelin’s death was deemed a homicide, and roughly seven years later, Mecas was arrested and charged.

Neufeld said a sentence of nine years in prison, less the time he’s spent in custody, which is the equivalent of 1,130 days or around three years, would be appropriate.

Mecas was alone watching Haelin in Sioux Valley Dakota Nation when the injuries that caused her death occurred. Only minutes after other family left the home, Mecas called them and said something was wrong with the baby, Neufeld said.

“It’s just a number of minutes before the family returns home, and she is unresponsive.”

Neufeld acknowledged a lack of evidence regarding what led to the injuries and why the incident occurred. However, she said looking at the extent of the trauma, “the court can find that this was a violent act, that instead of doing as he ought to as a parent, protect and care for his child, that Mr. Mecas did the opposite. He committed a violent act that resulted in her death.”

While Neufeld said she couldn’t find any mitigating factors, she listed several aggravating ones, including that Mecas was in a position of trust, that Haelin was under 18 years old and that they were family.

She pointed out that Mecas didn’t plead guilty to the offence, which she described as the absence of a mitigating factor rather than an aggravating one, and that he hadn’t shown any expression of remorse.

Defence lawyer Andrew Synyshyn said a sentence of nine years is excessive and instead asked for four years, minus time in custody.

Regardless of the outcome in court, Synyshyn said Mecas will always have to live with the fact that his daughter is dead and that “he was one of the last people to see her, hold her alive, and for the rest of his life, he will bear that burden.”

Since Haelin’s death, Synyshyn said Mecas has changed as a person and has had to deal with “the stigma of potentially being involved in his child’s death.”

Mecas moved out of Sioux Valley as a result and has had to go through hours of court hearings and meetings with court workers and Child and Family Services, he said.

He also pointed out that Mecas, who is originally from Waywayseecappo First Nation, has Gladue factors the court should consider when deciding the appropriate sentence, including that he comes from a community that has “struggled through colonization and residential schools.”

Synyshyn described Mecas as being robbed of his culture from a young age.

He said that while the court knows the injuries Haelin sustained and the result of them, not a lot is known about what led to the incident. However, he said there is evidence that Haelin was a happy and healthy baby.

“I do know that there is no evidence saying that Mr. Mecas was an absent parent, a non-diligent parent — there’s nothing saying that he was a poor parent,” Synyshyn said. “There’s also no evidence … of any requirements of violence or injury. Nothing was consistent with any type of maltreatment.”

When something was wrong with Haelin on the day of her injuries, Synyshyn said, Mecas immediately called for help.

He described the incident as “a single instance of an event, seconds of an event in Mr. Mecas’s life, and unfortunately, the cause of the end of Haelin’s.”

Abel reserved his decision and is expected to sentence Mecas on March 4.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com