deadmonton 2005 - alexis grant
Alexis Grant, 14 months, was beaten to death May 18th, 2005.
David Peter Hersey, 24, was charged with second-degree murder.
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Edmonton's fifteenth homicide victim of 2005 was also the youngest.
Paramedics responding to a call at a north side Edmonton duplex were told that a baby was having trouble breathing.
They heard the infant had fallen down a set of three stairs.
After the baby died in hospital the next morning, police became involved.
The injuries the baby received were inconsistent with the story given of an accidental fall.
An autopsy concluded that Alexis Grant died of blunt cranial trauma.
A male boarder acting as a babysitter was alone with the child in the home at 14004 63 Street.
Alexis' mother, Treasure Grant, had left for work and Shayla, the baby's six-year-old sister, was at school when the injuries happened.
Treasure Grant and the infant's father were separated at the time.
Police charged David Peter Hersey, 24, with second-degree murder.
Calgary-born Hersey worked with a windows company before takng a drilling job in Edson. He had recently split up with his wife and had a 10-month old daughter.
Hersey recently moved from Edson and apparently knew the Grant family before he arrived. He had looked after the baby in the past.
It was later learned in court that Hersey had been using methamphetamine but claimed he quit a month before the death of Alexis. Neighbours described him as tattooed and rough looking.
On June 3rd, 2005 Hersey appeared in court and entered a plea of not guilty.
On December 21st, 2005 Hersey's application for bail was turned down. On January 13th, 2006 his trial date was set for October 4th, 2006.
On October 4th, 2006 David Peter Hersey's second-degree murder trial got underway.
The trial, presided by Justice Mary Moreau, began with Hersey trying to plead guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter.
Defence lawyer Steven Fix said his client was not guilty of second-degree murder, but guilty of the lesser and included offence of manslaughter.
The offer was rejected by the Crown which stated it would be proceeding to trial on the charge of second-degree murder.
In her opening statement, Crown prosecutor Shelley Bykewich told the court David Peter Hersey was in a relationship with Alexis' mother, Treasure Grant, and was her roomate for several months prior to the child's death.
On May 18th, 2005 Treasure left for work, leaving 14-month-old Alexis in the care of Hersey. The child was normally placed in a day care but that day Hersey volunteered to look after her.
When Treasure left, Hersey was seated on a couch watching television with Grant's six-year-old daughter. The older girl left for school soon afterward.
By 9:00 a.m. the Crown said something had already happened to the child in the Grant residence.
A call was made to 911 and paramedics arrived by 2:45 p.m. to find the infant limp and cold in the living room.
The trial, before a seven man and five woman jury, was expected to take two weeks. The Crown planned to open its case with testimony from Edmonton police criminal investigation officers.
Treasure Grant was also slated to testify at the start of the trial concerning several conversations she had with Hersey that didn't indicate there was something seriously wrong at the home.
Bykewich told jurors they would also hear medical evidence and view autopsy photographs outlining Alexis' multiple injuries, including her bruising and a brain injury.
The second day of the trial saw Treasure Grant, now 30, take the stand.
The mother described how she was picked up from work and then driven to the University of Alberta Hospital in a police car after being told her child had been injured.
“I should have known there was something wrong -- we were doing about 120 kilometres-an-hour down 75th Street and Whyte Avenue.”
What she didn't was how bad 14-month-old Alexis’ injuries were.
The child underwent emergency surgery for severe head trauma. Alexis was declared brain dead the following day and taken off life support.
In testimony earlier in the day, Treasure Grant described how a broken-down car and a missed bus left the question of how to get the 14-month-old to daycare. When she asked Hersey to take her he replied, “I just think I will keep her home.”
When Grant arrived at the office where she worked she immediately called Hersey to see if everything was alright. Hersey said soon after Shayla had left for school Alexis fell down the basement stairs again.
Alexis had taken a tumble a few days before, resulting in a slight bump on her forehead that disappeared within a half hour after the application of ice.
When she heard of the repeat fall, Treasure asked, "Oh my God, is she okay?" She could hear Alexis whimpering in the background and told Hersey to re-apply the ice.
During a later call she asked Hersey how Alexis was doing.
“He said she looked like she had been hit by a truck and said she must have hit his shoe on the way down. He said she was acting funny.”
Treasure then described another call from Hersey.
“He said she had fallen off the couch. He said she is acting like she is choking. He said he was going to get some water and splash her face.”
Grant had to hang up when a customer came into her office. She tried calling Hersey back but the phone was busy.
At 2:41 p.m. Hersey had called 911. When Grant got him on the phone again, he told her the fire department had arrived.
“I’m not sure if he said she had quit breathing or had difficulty breathing. I heard him say to the firemen Treasure is on the phone. They said they would talk to me later.”
After repeated attempted calls, a man answered.
“Who’s this?” he said.
Grant told him she was the woman who lived in the duplex and she was at work.
“This is the city police,” the man told her. “There is an officer on the way.”
Grant also testified that she was allowed back in her home several days after the death.
She said she found a toilet paper roll with blood on it in the bathroom as well as a bloody towel. A piece of plywood, which had been used under a jigsaw puzzle on a living room table, was found by the furnace in the basement.
Finally, jurors heard an audio recording of a 911 call the Crown suggests was made by Hersey.
Dispatch: "And what is the problem?"
Hersey: "I have a one-year-old and I'm babysitting for my roommate and after the oldest one left for school she fell down the stairs and ... ."
Dispatch: "You have a one-year-old that's fallen?"
Hersey: "Yes, now that's OK, she was fine from that. Now ... ."
Dispatch: "Sir, what is the problem, why do you need an ambulance?"
Hersey: "She's just not breathing, she's not corresponding to me, she's not nothing. Alexis!"
Dispatch: "Sir, you need to listen to me OK? So you just told me that there's a one-year-old there that's not breathing at all, is that true?"
Hersey: "As far as I know, she's kind of like gasping for air. She was and now ... ."
Dispatch: "Are you with her now?"
Hersey: "She's on the couch, I'm right in front of her, yes."
Dispatch: "Is she conscious?"
Hersey: "Vaguely, like she's just gasping for air and stuff."
Dispatch: "But is she breathing?"
Hersey: "Yes, like she's ... ."
Dispatch: "Is she able to cry at all?"
Hersey: "No."
Dispatch: "OK. Is she completely awake, is she looking around?"
Hersey: "No, her eyes are just looking right at me, she's not looking around or nothing."
Dispatch: "But she's focusing on you?"
Hersey: "No, like her eyes are dead."
The third day of the trial heard testimony from first responders.
Paramedics suspected foul play within minutes of arrival and they and others said Hersey seemed far too calm and composed for someone who had just witnessed an infant in his care sustain grave injury.
Firefighters were the first to respond after Hersey called 911 at 2:41 p.m. Alexis wasn't breathing. Five minutes later, two paramedics took over artificial respiration from the fire crew.
Fire department District Chief David McAvoy testified Hersey told him Alexis had "fallen off the couch" and had also fallen down some stairs earlier in the day.
McAvoy testified that after Hersey told him the baby had fallen down the same set of stairs a few days before, he called fire dispatch and asked them to call police.
"He was very calm, there was no voice-raising, no pacing," Brent Kelland, a veteran paramedic with Emergency Medical Services, told the court of Hersey's behaviour.
"Part of our training is to know when to be suspicious," Kelland said. "The colours of her bruises raised suspicions about the method of injury and time of injury."
Kelland testified Hersey also told him Alexis had fallen down some stairs.
Paramedic Chad Jeschke testified Hersey was calm and showing "no emotion." He said he found his behaviour "abnormal" compared to other people in serious cases.
When asked to describe her state, paramedic Brent Kelland said Alexis Grant was unresponsive, her skin was pale and cool and her circulatory system was "shut down very significantly."
"In a word, critical. She was not breathing on her own and she required us to support her airways and breathe for her."
"She had a lot of bruising to the face and her forehead, and when we took off her clothes she had more to her chest and abdomen," Kelland said.
The fourth day of the trial saw the jury view a lengthy videotaped police interview with David Hersey.
Initially during the two-hour interview, conducted by Detective Don Curle shortly after Hersey was arrested, the accused stuck with his story of Alexis taking a fall down some stairs.
When Curle asked Hersey what he would like to say Alexis right now, the accused man said he was "very, very sorry."
It was then a sobbing Hersey told the detective, "I just lost it. She just wouldn't stop crying."
Hersey told Curle the 14-month-old simply wouldn't shut up. He tried cartoons, toys and juice, tried sitting with her, but nothing seemed to worked.
He told how he threw a toy camera at Grant while she was in her crib, which only made her more upset.
"And that pushed me over the edge, even more," he said.
Hersey then described taking a plastic toy box and squishing her between it and the crib.
"And I just pinned her between the two."
Alexis began screaming and he screamed back.
Hersey then admitted picking Grant up and dropping her in the crib. She yelled more and he threw another toy at her, striking her in the face.
Hersey said then he grabbed her and threw her against a couch in the living room.
As Alexis fell down, he pushed a wheeled coffee table at her, striking her in the stomach and pinning her against the couch.
She fell face-first onto the table and then onto the floor.
Hersey told Curle he went to the bathroom. When he returned Alexis was lying still on the floor. He then called 911.
A Stollery Children's Hospital pediatrician told the court that when Alexis was brought in she was in a coma.
The physician described the bruises on her forehead, on the bridge of her nose, on her face, her abdomen and on her legs.
The child's core body temperature had dropped several degrees, her pupils were fixed and dilated, and she could not breathe on her own.
The trial's fifth day heard testimony from David Hersey's former wife, Jolene Cooper.
Hersey called Cooper the day Alexis Grant died, less than 24 hours after emergency services were first called to the Grant home.
Charges against Hersey had just been upgraded from aggravated assault to second-degree murder.
Cooper testified Hersey called her on the phone and admitted he had "killed" 14-month-old Alexis Grant while he was babysitting her.
Cooper said Hersey told her he had "beaten" Alexis. When Cooper asked "why?" he replied it had happened in "a fit of rage."
Hersey told Cooper he would be going away for a long time.
The couple had a daughter, now two, and Hersey told Cooper to kiss their little girl for him because he "would see them in 25 to 40 years."
The trial continued with an Edmonton coroner and a child abuse specialist from the Stollery Children’s Hospital detailing the various injuries inflicted on Alexis Grant.
“It was terrible,” said Dr. Melanie Lewis, a pediatric intensive-care specialist from the Stollery’s child and adolescent protection centre. “I realised right away she was in grave condition and her prognosis was not good.”
Lewis said there was “evidence of multiple blows” to both her head and body and “massive” swelling to her scalp and the back of her head.
“If you put your hand to the back of her head, it felt boggy,” said Lewis. She added surgeons also found bleeding around the little girl’s brain.
Lewis testified the injuries suffered by Alexis were similar to ones found in baby-shaking cases. She compared the force needed to cause them to what is seen in high-speed crashes or a two-storey fall.
"This was not a trivial amount of trauma, this was a massive amount of trauma."
“This was a catastrophical fatal injury,” she said. “It would have taken a massive amount of force.”
Assistant chief medical examiner Dr. Bernard Bannach told the jury the cause of Alexis’ death was “blunt cranial trauma” and said she had bruising on her cheeks, her left ear, her stomach, her elbow and the inside of her scalp.
Outside court, Dr. Bannach further detailed the infant's injuries to CTV Edmonton cameras.
"Serious injury [was] to the inside of her head where there was bleeding on both the surface of the brain and in the space between the brain and the inner side of the skull."
On Monday, October 16th, 2006 lawyers presented their final arguments.
Crown prosecutor Shelley Bykewich stated a "rage-filled" Hersey embarked on a "systematic assault" on Alexis Grant because she was a "whiny kid" who wouldn't stop crying.
"There were multiple opportunities for him to stop, leave, get help."
"This was a prolonged assault, not just a momentary loss of control," said Bykewich. "This was second-degree murder."
Defence lawyer Steven Fix admitted Hersey caused Alexis's death, but he argued it was a case of manslaughter.
The lawyer conceded Hersey had at least two opportunities to "cool down."
Fix said there was no intention to kill, and Hersey couldn't have foreseen that his actions would have lead to the death of the child.
Unlike shaking a baby to death or slamming it to the ground, in pushing a coffee table at Grant "there is an element of chance involved," Fix said.
Had the table hit Alexis differently the result perhaps would have been different, Fix suggested.
The defence lawyer reminded the jury his client had offered to plead guilty to manslaughter but the Crown had refused that plea.
At 2:00 p.m. the jury was sequestered to begin their deliberations. By evening they were sent to a hotel.
On the morning of the second day of deliberation, the jury returned to court asking to again hear the testimony of the baby's mother, Treasure Grant.
By 3:30 p.m. the jury returned informing the court it could not reach a unanimous verdict.
Justice Mary Moreau instructed the jury to resume deliberations, hoping to avoid the case ending in a mis-trial.
Ninety-minutes later the seven man and five woman jury returned with a verdict, ending 15 hours of deliberation.
David Peter Hersey was found not guilty of second-degree murder but guilty of the lesser and included charge of manslaughter.
The verdict had a near-immediate impact on the victim's mother.
As lawyers and Justice Moreau discussed the schedule for the next day's sentencing hearing and the order of victim impact statements, Treasure Grant sought the nearest bathroom after slamming through a courtroom door.
"I had to get sick, more or less because I have to have contact with my ex again," she said.
Grant explained to reporters that she and Michael Leavey had split up in January 2005.
Four months later Grant placed Alexis in the care of the boarder who had become her lover, a man who for years had been her neighbour.
At that time, restraining orders were issued against both parents to keep them apart.
The penalty associated with a manslaughter conviction ranges from a life sentence to a suspended sentence with no jail time. A second-degree conviction carries a mandatory life sentence with a minimum prison sentence of at least 10 years.
Hersey, now 26, had no prior criminal record. He had already served 17 months in the Edmonton Remand Centre.
Offenders housed in the over-crowded facility usually receive two-for-one sentencing credit, meaning Hersey had already served nearly three years of whatever the court was to decide.
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Outside court, Treasure Grant said she already forgave Hersey for killing her daughter. Grant visisted Hersey at the Remand Centre in 2005 and he said he was sorry.
"For myself and the year and a half therapy I have gone through, I have forgiven him due to the fact there is no way I could hang onto that much anger," she said.
Grant spoke of the day's developments.
"There was a lot of tossing and turning but when they came back this afternoon and said they didn't have a verdict -- that they couldn't settle on a verdict -- I actually thought they were going in the direction of second."
Grant reflected on the verdict.
"It's not going to make me feel any better if he has to spend the rest of his life behind bars. It's not going to make me feel any better if he gets out tomorrow."
"The verdict to me meant nothing due to the fact it's not going to bring my daughter back. She's gone and to me it doesn't matter."
"It was left in the hands of twelve other people and that's what they found. I didn't get to hear all the evidence -- I don't know all of everything."
"So the only thing I can say is they did their job and that's the verdict they came up with."
When asked of Hersey's fate Grant said, "He's going to live with what happened for the rest of his life."
She added if Hersey was the person she thinks he is, he would be "feeling like crap."
"Nothing can make me feel better unless there's some kind of miracle that could give me my daughter back."
Most of October 18th, 2006 was tied up with the reading of several victim impact statements.
Treasure Grant told the sentencing hearing she'll carry the scars of the tragedy forever.
"I will never be the same. I feel part of me left with her. Unless you have that bond with a child, you'll never know."
"He's the one that has do the time; he is the one who has to live with himself for what he did," she said.
"I feel physically ill missing her so much. I would have to say I cry all the time now, I miss her so much."
She now constantly worries about letting other people care for her seven-year-old daughter.
Alexis Grant's father, Michel Leavey, said he won't ever forgive the man who killed his child whose death has "left a hole in my heart."
"I don't think he should be let out of jail ever."
Hersey chose not to speak. Fix said his client is sorry for what happened.
"He lives with this every day," he said. "One day he hopes to forgive himself."
Speaking to CTV Edmonton cameras outside court, Treasure Grant reflected on the day's proceedings.
"If anything I just really hope that he gets the help he needs."
"That's basically it."
"So that somebody else does not have to go through this."
The Crown was seeking a prison term of 10 years for Hersey -- less time served, while the defence asked for a term of 4 to 7 years less time served.
Defence lawyer Fix suggested a proper sentence would be a provincial term of less than two years, with probation, or up to five years in a federal prison.
On October 20th, 2006 Justice Mary Moreau rendered her sentencing decision.
David Hersey was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison.
Moreau said Alexis Grant, 14-months old, had no way of defending herself during Hersey's 2 1/2-hour assault.
"Mr. Hersey completely lost control of himself on May 18, 2005."
"He acted out his rage towards a vulnerable infant who needed his protection," said Moreau.
"She couldn't open the front door and walk out. She couldn't call out for assistance. She couldn't fight back."
"He allowed his rage to play out and control his actions," and used a TV table on wheels "as a weapon to cause injury."
Instead of a spontaneous, single blow in a fit of anger, he attacked her several times for more than two hours, Moreau said.
She said Hersey was remorseful in his interview with police, and offered to plead guilty to manslaughter to avoid the murder trial. She also said there was no evidence he was high on drugs that day.
Moreau said Hersey deserved a sentence of 7 1/2 years but he was given nearly three years credit for pre-trial custody time spent in the Edmonton Remand Centre.
For Treasure Grant, the sentence was not enough.
Speaking to media she said, "From what I was led to believe, it was all accidental."
"Stuff that had happened – to my understanding it had happened in one short period, not over the course of a day."
"I was never led to believe that she was severely hurt."
"I don't think it was long enough. Like, the way I look at it he's basically – 4 and a half years of our tax paying dollars gets to support him for the next while."
"And my daughter didn't even get to live that long."
Hersey told reporters the issue of closure is in the hands of the Crown who have the option of appealing the sentence.
Hersey will serve his time in a federal penitentiary.