Mother, stepfather plead guilty to manslaughter in death of Port Alberni six-year-old

The mother and stepfather of a six-year-old Port Alberni boy have pleaded guilty to charges in his 2018 death.

The BC Prosecution Service confirmed Monday that Rykel Frank, the boy’s biological mother, and Mitchell Frank, her partner, had pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of Dontay-Patrick Lucas.

The couple was initially charged with first-degree murder in May 2022.

Police discovered Lucas in medical distress at a Port Alberni home on March 13, 2018. He was rushed to the hospital but did not survive.

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At the time, police deemed the death suspicious.

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In an interview last May, Lucas’ stepmother Kristen Dean told Global News she still didn’t know how the boy died. The boy’s mother, she said, claimed he had fallen down the stairs, while police only said the death was suspicious.

“We weren’t told exactly why arrests were going to be made,” she said at the time. “We weren’t told what exactly happened.”

Rykel and Mitchell Frank are due back in court for sentencing on May 16.

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