Sentenced: Toddler returned to her Peguis First Nation parents & died a year later from abuse

[Sugar Cookie]

10/19/2018

A Peguis First Nation father who neglected his toddler daughter and left her to "waste away" while she was being physically abused by her mother is considering whether he'll appeal the eight-year prison sentence he received for contributing to her death.

Daniel Williams, 37, was sentenced Friday to eight years in prison after a jury convicted him of manslaughter in the July 2014 death of his 21-month-old daughter Kierra Williams. A year after Child and Family Services took Kierra out of foster care and returned her to her parents, she died at the hands of her mother.

Vanessa Bushie fatally assaulted her daughter after subjecting her to months of malnourishment and serious injuries including broken bones and a cracked skull. Bushie is serving a life sentence after she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Kierra's death, and Williams argued he should be spared jail time because he was also a victim of Bushie's abuse.

By the time paramedics rushed her to hospital on July 17, 2014, Kierra's skin was already turning grey. She weighed only 17 pounds and looked more like a nine-month-old baby than a nearly two-year-old girl. She had several broken bones, a cracked skull, five missing teeth, a dislocated shoulder and an eroded nose, which was blamed on eczema.

The judge disagreed. "In my view, that Mr. Williams may have been intimidated by a domineering or abusive spouse has a very limited impact on his moral blameworthiness in this case. It may be that Mr. Williams felt that Ms. Bushie would not listen to him, but that doesn't explain how he could have left Kierra to waste away and suffer from her injuries without care," Bond said.
Court of Queen's Bench Justice Sadie Bond emphasized Kierra's parents made a "deliberate choice" not to take her to the hospital or allow her to be seen in the community because they feared CFS would again take away their two older children. "We both made that decision because we didn't want to lose our other babies," Williams told RCMP when he was interviewed during the police investigation. "I was hoping she would get better, but she didn't."
According to testimony from Kierra’s older half-sisters, who babysat for her and saw how Bushie treated her, the toddler was hit, pushed, slapped, force-fed and kept in a locked room for hours or even days without food or a diaper change and made to sleep on the floor.

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/l...EcKGUDbTNi5axgbxinB9zkcy5mcMbltomit2hWyLpD7Xs

 

[Anubis]

That chubby little face should have an ear to ear grin and constant belly laughs.

 

[AussieKat]

To go from the cute little chubby in the pic to the pitiful starved brutalized soul in the story is the most heartbreaking story in the world. RIP little angel.

 

[Benighted]

Although one of the lesser injuries, "eroded nose" made me shudder. Brings it home that this happened over a long period of time. Poor baby.

 

[Sejanus]

Bash his face in with particular attention to the nose.
Perhaps use a tomahawk to keep it culturally sensitive.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Another family reunification fail.

 

[Fellofftheporch]

I had my children taken by Child Protective Services cause I used drugs. It took me 2 years of pissing in a cup, jumping through hoops and having every move I made analyzed down to the moecule to get them back. And once I did get them back I still had another year of pissing, jumping and analyzing before I was allowed to decide things for us, myself. And these fucking assholes get never got a second look! I hate people.

 

[ERZSEBET]

Re: HIS abuse- Has no relevance because He could leave whenever he wanted and the Baby was completely under their evil control. HUGE DIFFERENCE

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Manitoba’s highest court has upheld an eight-year prison sentence for a man whose neglect contributed to his young daughter’s death at the hands of her mother.

Daniel Vernon Williams of Peguis First Nation was convicted of manslaughter following a jury trial in 2018. His 21-month-old daughter, Kierra Elektra Star Williams, died of internal bleeding following an assault by her mother, Vanessa Bushie, on July 14, 2014.

Bushie pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced in 2017 to life in prison with no chance of parole for 14 years.

In a 16-page decision, the Manitoba Court of Appeal dismissed Williams’s conviction appeal, granted him leave to appeal his sentence and then dismissed that as well.

Kierra was placed in foster care at birth and returned to her parents at nine months of age. She died just one year later.

Jurors at Williams’s trial were told Kierra had been malnourished and physically abused for months before she died. Her injuries included 11 fractured ribs, fractures to her arm and skull and five missing teeth.

Williams argued on appeal that the sentencing judge did not properly consider his degree of participation or non-participation in Kierra’s death, given that he did not assault the girl and was not present when the fatal assault occurred. Williams also argued the judge did not give proper weight to his background as an Indigenous person and evidence that he suffered from battered spouse syndrome.

Williams did not testify, but in a police statement provided to court, he said he saw Bushie angrily pick up Kierra by her arm and on another occasion heard Kierra’s head hit the floor after Bushie changed her diaper in a rough manner.

Williams told police he did nothing to help the child and that he and Bushie decided to isolate her so family members would not report them to social workers. Williams said he and Bushie decided not to seek medical attention for Kierra, fearing they would lose custody of their two other children.

While Williams may not have directly caused Kierra’s death, he made "deliberate choices" that allowed it to happen, Justice Karen Simonsen wrote on behalf of the appeal court.

Williams "was aware of the child’s suffering and knew that she needed medical attention, but nonetheless repeatedly chose to do nothing about it," Simonsen said. "During that time, the child went from a healthy baby to one whose battered and emaciated appearance shocked hospital staff. In all the circumstances I take no issue with the trial judge’s assessment of the accused’s moral culpability as very high."

Court rejects dad's appeal in toddler's death

Manitoba’s highest court has upheld an eight-year prison sentence for a man whose neglect contributed to his young daughter’s death at the hands of her mother. Daniel Vernon Williams of Peguis First Nation was convicted of manslaughter following a jury trial in 2018. His 21-month-old daughter...

www.winnipegfreepress.com

 

[Sugar Cookie]

 

[sinfulplezurz702]

Fucking monsters