Sentencing hearing in connection with death of Toronto toddler begins

Did Joel France inflict the injuries that led to 26-month-old Nicholas Cruz’s death? That’s the question Madam Justice Anne Molloy must decide at the sentencing hearing for the 39-year-old who pleaded guilty to the manslaughter death of the child.

Nicholas Cruz was carried into Toronto Western Hospital on July 14, 2013 by his mother Marleny Cruz and her then live-in boyfriend Joel France. The couple, who lived just south of Trinity Bellwoods Park, asked a stranger to drive them to the hospital around 3 p.m. that day. When they arrived at the hospital, the 26-month-old was not breathing and did not have heart activity. Doctors could not save little Nicholas.

Twenty-nine-year-old Marleny Cruz was originally charged with second-degree murder in the toddler’s death, but she pleaded guilty to manslaughter last month. Now serving a six-year sentence, she is taking the stand at the sentencing hearing of Joel France, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter two weeks ago.

READ MORE: Man, woman charged with murder in death of baby

The court heard France wanted Nicholas to call him daddy, just days after the couple started dating in May 2013.

The contested issue at the heart of this sentencing hearing is did Joel France deliver the fatal blow. On the stand Monday, the boy’s mother told Madam Justice Molloy that just five weeks after the two met while walking on the street, he moved into the family’s townhouse despite the fact she testified that he called her derogatory names he had choked her, slapped her on separate occasions, and that he had hit the boy. Cruz explained that France said she wasn’t a typical Caribbean mother, she was not strict enough. He also told her she was afraid to physically discipline her child.

The crown attorney asked Cruz how she react to him physically disciplining Nicholas.

“I was mad. I didn’t think it was right. I would tell him not to, but he wouldn’t listen. He would say my son needs to learn manners,” she testified.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I was mad. I didn't think it was right. I would tell him not to, but he wouldn't listen. He would say my son needs to learn manners," she testified.

Crown Attorney Mihael Cole questioned Cruz about the decision to let France move in.

“You describe him as controlling and jealous, physically abusive, physically abusive towards your son. Why would you agree to have him move into your place?” he asked.

“I myself don’t understand it. It was more like things were so bad between us. I didn’t want to rock the boat. I didn’t want to give him another reason to attack me,” Cruz said.

She testified that two weeks later, she kept Nicholas home from daycare after France hit her son. She also told the court France punched the toddler in the stomach and later wondered if that caused him to start vomiting green bile the night before he died.

An autopsy later found the toddler died of shock stemming from complications from severe intestinal injuries.

The boy’s mother cried in court when she was shown a picture of her three sons that police found in the family’s Trinity Bellwoods-area townhouse.

Cruz had already had two children seized by Catholic Children’s Aid Society in 2009 and they were put up for adoption just after Nicholas was born. Nicolas himself had also been removed from his mother’s care when he was born due to her past history of associating herself with domestically abusive partners. However, he was returned to her care and was being supervised by the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) at the time of his death. The last CAS visit was just days before France moved in.

An agreed statement of facts submitted at the start of the sentencing hearing revealed that Marleny Cruz gave birth to her fourth child on Feb. 12, 2014. Joel France is the father of that child. The child was seized at birth and ongoing family court proceedings continue with respect to the custody of that child.

The sentencing hearing is expected to last for two weeks.