WARNING: This article contains disturbing content.
A justice decided Friday that the Edmonton man found guilty of second-degree murder in the 2020 death of a seven-year-old girl won’t be eligible for parole for 15 years.
David Michael Moss faced an automatic life sentence for killing Bella Rose Desrosiers, the daughter of his high school friend Melissa Francis.
The Crown argued Moss should not be eligible for parole for between 20 and 22 years. The defence suggested 13 years of parole ineligibility.
Justice Steven Mandziuk said this is a “shocking, horrific and sickening crime.”
“A strong response is warranted,” he said, adding that is reflected in the life sentence.
When determining parole ineligibility, the court considered the gravity of the crime, mental illness, the victim or victims and the harm done to them, and intention and degree of responsibility.
The justice said any sentence “will not be enough to give Bella’s family back what was lost.”
Court previously heard Melissa, a nurse, had been trying to help Moss, who she feared was suicidal.
Before the attack, Moss said he was trying to ascend to another realm and was experiencing an “awakening.”
Moss admitted to killing Bella but said he had no memory of it.
A judge previously denied his defence of being not criminally responsible (NCR) for stabbing the child to death with scissors in her Mill Woods home in front of her mother and little sister in May 2020. Bella’s mother Melissa tried to fight him off, court heard, and told her other daughter, who was four at the time, to run and hide in the bathroom.
Moss sat in the prisoner’s box Friday in an orange jumpsuit, his head hung low.
Justice Mandziuk said the offender killed Bella in a “very violent and relentless fashion,” taking preparatory steps.
“He made a decision to kill Bella, sought out a weapon.”
Moss committed the attack despite Bella’s mother trying to fight him off and in the presence of another little girl, Bella’s sister, who was just four at the time.
“The level of violence was horrific,” the justice said, “prolonged.”
The victim’s young age and vulnerability were aggravating factors, Mandziuk explained. “She was killed in her home where she was meant to feel safe.”
However, when mental illness causes or contributes, moral culpability is different, the justice said, and that can be a mitigating factor in determining parole ineligibility.
In crimes involving mental illness, excessive sentences do not serve as deterrence or denunciation in a marked way, the justice added.
The decision also considered Moss’ psychosis. However, he knew his actions were wrong, the justice said.
“I accept the offender is remorseful,” Mandziuk said.
Moss is also subject to a DNA order, a lifetime weapons ban and a non-communication order with the family.
“I’ll never have any type of closure,” Bella’s mother Melissa said.
“We were hoping for the maximum year of parole ineligibility, which we didn’t really get. I just want to focus on moving forward and honouring Bella.”
Melissa got married in September. Together, the family has been fundraising for a retreat to support other families of homicide victims. Butterfly Hearts Emotional Wellness Retreat was named, in a sense, by Bella.
“When Bella lost her father to suicide, she had her own struggles with mental health and we had to get a lot of help for her,” her mother explained.
“Her big thing was just: ‘How can we help others?’
“So, she had already had the name Butterfly Hearts in mind. It’s just to continue on with her dream and make her legacy come true.”
The first retreat will be in July, Melissa said. She hopes they will become annual and open to kids as well as adults.
This is what Melissa wants to focus on now, after four years of court appearances and delays.
“Exhausting. Very triggering for all of us,” she said. “Coming to court events like this and then it being delayed, it just prolongs our grief and trauma. We’ll always have grief and trauma but it’s always thrown in our face with these types of things.
“Not knowing what’s going to happen … always having that underlying fear of: is there going to be an appeal now? It’s always in the back of our minds. It delays our grief process.”
May 18 marked four years since Bella’s death. Melissa said she’d like to spend some time in the garden — something Bella loved doing.
“I’m just looking forward to giving space to that grief now that everything is over.”
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