Rodrigo Flores-Romero, found guilty by a jury of manslaughter in June for the beating death of his fiancée’s toddler Wynonna Noganosh, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.
The 30-year-old gave a brief elocution turning toward the child’s mother, Aliesha Noganosh, before being sentenced by Superior Court Justice Phil Campbell in a downtown Toronto courtroom Friday morning.
“I know there are no words that I can say that express how horrible I feel over this. There is no forgiveness. Aliesha, you must have felt a lot of pain, confusion and anger at yourself. I hope you know, you’re a great mother and friend,” Flores-Romero said.
The child’s mother began screaming tearfully at Flores-Romero.
“Why did you do this to my family? We loved you. You chose to do this to her and for what? I was pregnant with your baby. I loved you and you took her from us,” Noganosh cried.
It was March 17, 2021 when Wynonna, who was known as Winnie, came to Toronto from the Magnetawan First Nation with her mother and her brother, for a visit with Flores-Romero, her mother’s fiancé.
Two days after arriving at the North York townhouse where Flores-Romero lived, two-year-old Wynonna died in hospital. A post mortem found she had seven lacerations and contusions to her head and neck, 15 more on her torso, dozens on her arms and legs and extensive internal bleeding.
In court, assistant Crown attorney Allison Macpherson told the jury that Wynonna died as a result of a barrage of blunt force injuries when Flores-Romero assaulted her at the Grandravine Community Centre on the way home from the Metro store at Wilson Avenue and Keele Street, urging them to find Flores-Romero guilty of second-degree murder.
The jury saw extensive video surveillance from the grocery store that captured the toddler and her brother with Flores-Romero in the Metro store parking lot, just minutes prior to the deadly assault. Flores-Romero had offered to take the children to the Metro store because Aliesha, who was pregnant with his child, was feeling unwell.
Minutes later, Flores-Romero’s car was tracked to the community centre parking lot, where it stayed for approximately six minutes before the offender and the children arrived in the parking lot at 299 Grandravine Dr. where he lived.
The jury was also shown cellphone video taken by Flores-Romero sent to Wynonna’s mother that shows Flores-Romero talking to Wynonna, who is in the back seat of his car. She is moaning and unresponsive. Flores-Romero makes a remark about Wynonna peeing before the videos shows the toddler’s urine-stained pants.
Flores-Romero testified in his own defence that he stopped at the community centre so Wynonna could pee. He said he directed the child toward a grassy area at the back of the building so she could pee, while he scrolled Instagram on his phone, leaving the child unattended.
Macpherson suggested to the jury that Flores-Romero lost his temper as a result of a toileting accident and assaulted the child.
The jury also heard that Aliesha called Flores-Romero and her child out of the bathroom, after they’d be there for a considerable time after returning home.
After observing Wynonna to be lethargic, she attempted CPR but Wynonna’s condition was obviously grave.
Flores-Romero drove the mother and her children to hospital where he lied, telling medical staff the child had slipped and fallen in the bathtub. Flores-Romero, while still in hospital, was arrested and charged with murder.
After more than two days of deliberations, the jury found Flores-Romero guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter, rejecting his testimony that he accidentally tripped on her foot and fell on top of her at the community centre. Justice Campbell said it was clear the jury believed that Flores-Romero carried out a prolonged, very long violent assault on the young child, with whose care he had been entrusted.
Campbell called Flores-Romero’s claim that he fell on top of her “a preposterous account by Mr. Flores-Romero of what happened to Wynonna, false not only in its factual details, but in its deflection of moral responsibility.”
The Crown had asked for a sentence of 12 years, while the defence suggested a range of six to eight years would be more appropriate.
The judge said in handing down an 11-year sentence, at the higher range for manslaughter, that he is concerned that Flores-Romero has not yet acknowledged and dealt with the enormity of the crime. On the night Wynonna died, Flores-Romero had been drinking. Campbell acknowledged that the offender has a problem with alcohol and anger.
“I cannot attach significant weight to his prospects for rehabilitation when they are not grounded in genuine remorse.”
The judge reduced Flores-Romero’s sentence by a year due to a Duncan credit, including frequent lockdowns due to the pandemic and facing charges of murdering a child. He was given four years’ credit, for the 973 days he spent in pre-trial custody, leaving six years left to serve. He was also ordered to give a DNA sample to the national DNA registry and given a 10-year weapons ban upon completion of his sentence.
Outside court, Aliesha Noganosh said there is little justice for Wynonna, saying she fears for her own safety and the safety of her son once Flores-Romero is released from prison. Disappointed with the jury’s finding of guilty on manslaughter, she also wonders how the jury failed to understand that by beating the child, it would not have resulted in Wynonna’s death.
“I feel like the justice system failed my family. I know in my heart that he knew what he was doing. She was a little baby, two years old and 10 months. You can’t tell me when you’re hurting her, kicking her, punching her, whatever he didn’t do to her, there’s not going to be a fatality.”
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