Custodial dad, step blame each other for murder of 6-year-old daughter (Alberta, Canada)

We have an axiom here at Dastardly Dads: The media always forgets about a killer dad's custodial status by the time he goes to trial. That way, nobody in authority looks responsible, you know.

This is a perfect example of that. According to this previous article, dad SPENCER JORDAN had PRIMARY CUSTODY. Also see the Killer Dads and Custody list for Canada.

http://calgaryherald.com/news/crime/accused-couple-points-at-each-other-in-closing-arguments-of-trial-for-childs-death

Father, stepmother point fingers at each other in death of six-year-old Meika Jordan

Daryl Slade, Calgary Herald
Published on: April 28, 2015 Last Updated: April 29, 2015 6:53 AM MDT ​

There is no evidence that Spencer Jordan inflicted injuries that led to his six-year-old daughter Meika’s death nearly 3½ years ago, his lawyer said in his final argument on Tuesday.

Mitch Stephensen said Jordan, 28, admitted he pushed the girl down at their Temple Drive N.E. home on the evening of Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011, and punched her in the stomach the following morning, but neither of those injuries were life-threatening.

Instead, Stephensen told Justice Rosemary Nation that Jordan’s common-law spouse Marie Magoon, 25, admitted to inflicting several other injuries, including holding a lighter under the girl’s hand for possibly two minutes and pushing the girl downstairs several times.

Both co-accused are on trial for first-degree murder. “The real issue in the trial, talking about the elements (of murder), is identity,” said Stephensen. “It’s not whether the accused were there, but who did what and when — if anything — and is death a reasonable likelihood. This is what the Crown has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

“This is a sad story of the tragic loss of a beautiful girl and nothing will bring her back. But you decide on the law, not whether her abusers or tormentors unleashed their rage.”

Earlier, Magoon’s lawyer Allan Fay argued for an acquittal, saying his client could not be convicted of any homicide — first-degree or second-degree murder or manslaughter — as she did not cause any of the fatal wounds.

He said the judge could have convicted Magoon of aggravated assault for inflicting third-degree burns on the girl’s hand with a lighter, but she is not facing that charge.

Both suspects admitted to hurting the girl that long weekend, but neither party admitted to causing injuries serious enough to cause her death and both said they were not acting together in any of the assaults.

Crown prosecutor Susan Pepper told the judge that the couple was unemployed and financially stressed-out, angry and fighting, and took out their frustrations cruelly and violently on Meika.

Pepper said both suspects should be convicted as charged of first-degree murder as they killed the girl while committing the indictable offence of unlawfully confining her.

She said parents have certain rights to confine children in their home for her protection, but in this case, the assaults went far beyond that.

The prosecutor said the motive for their actions was that Meika was not running up and down the stairs as her father told her to do as punishment for not obeying him.

Court heard that Meika was crying, pleading and begging for mercy as she was being assaulted. Meika suffered five significant blows to the head, as well as abdominal injuries and cuts and bruises throughout her body.

She died at Alberta Children’s Hospital on Nov. 13, 2011, of blunt force trauma.

The judge will deliver her verdict on June 3.