The mother of a 20-month-old boy has been found guilty, along with her former boyfriend, of charges related to her son’s horrific and painful death.
At the London courthouse on Thursday, a judge found Amanda Dumont and Scott Bakker guilty of criminal negligence causing death and failing to provide the necessaries of life in the death of Dumont’s son Ryker Daponte-Michaud. He died of dehydration and shock in May 2014, three days after suffering severe burns when a cup of scalding hot coffee spilled on him.
The charges stemmed from allegations that Dumont and Bakker did not seek medical attention for Ryker.
"This was a tragic and needless death. Proper medical intervention undoubtedly would have saved [Ryker's] life," Justice Renne Pomerance told the court.
In delivering her verdict, Pomerance was particularly critical of Dumont. She stated "I do not accept Ms. Dumont's evidence as true... she took great pains to distance herself from anything incriminating even when her testimony was implausible."
The 31-year-old mother of four had testified that Ryker's burns were "pink" and looked "like a little sunburn" and that he was walking around and giggling shortly after being scalded. She also testified that Bakker was a violent, controlling partner who prevented her from checking on her son. However, testimony from two doctors and photo evidence contradicted her description of the severity of Ryker's injuries. Video of Dumont and Bakker in holding cells after their arrests showed Bakker as submissive as Dumont berated him, Pomerance noted.
An autopsy found Ryker had second and third degree burns over 25% of his body, on his upper legs, genitals, back, and buttocks. Pomerance said photo evidence of his burns showed they were "severe and grotesque." Had he been taken to hospital his chance of survival would have exceeded 95%.
Despite downplaying Ryker's injuries, Dumont was instructed by her mother, grandmother, and half brother to take the child to a doctor. At one point, the couple told Dumont's grandmother over the phone that they had taken Ryker to a clinic and were getting him medical creams at a pharmacy. The clinic they said they went to was closed on the day they claimed to have gone.
Bakker did not testify at trial but his defence argued that, since he was not the child's father, he had no legal duty to provide care. Pomerance found otherwise. She noted Bakker lived with Dumont, was Ryker's primary care-giver in Dumont's absence, was called "dad" by the toddler, and often referred to him as his son.
"[Bakker] was complicit in the decision not to take Ryker to hospital," Pomerance told the court.
Court also heard the Children's Aid Society had been involved with the family prior to Ryker being scalded and that Dumont and Bakker had a history of drug use.
Neither Dumont or Bakker showed much emotion when the guilty verdict was delivered. Dumont sat in the prisoner's box hunched over with her head down. Bakker, in a separate prisoner's box, looked straight ahead, shaking his head slightly. He did not stand when Pomerance left the courtroom.
"He is not happy with the decision. I guess that is not a surprise," Bakker's lawyer Gord Cudmore said to reporters outside the courthouse.
Defence Lawyer Gord Cudmore speaks outside of the London courthouse, September 28, 2017. (Photo by Miranda Chant, Blackburn News)
Cudmore expressed a desire to move on to the sentencing phase as soon as possible as Bakker is being held in Sarnia in "intolerable conditions."
He said it is too soon to say whether Bakker will appeal the decision.
"We don't make that decision as a knee-jerk reaction," said Cudmore. "We will read the decision and consider [Pomerance's] reasons and whether or not there is any appealable grounds."
Dumont's lawyer Ken Marley called the guilty verdict "very disappointing " and said he was shocked by the judge's flat rejection of his client's testimony.
"I thought the manner in which she gave it was compelling and I thought there was enough evidence in the other evidence in the case that there was corroboration for it. Her honour disagreed," said Marley.
He went on to question whether the photo evidence of Ryker's burns weighed "too heavily" on the case and intends to launch an appeal.
"Anytime somebody is facing a sanction as serious as this one it is my responsibility to canvass with my client the possibility of an appeal," said Marley.
The maximum sentence for criminal negligence causing death is life in prison. Failing to provide the necessaries of life carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
A date for sentencing will be set October 17.
