EDMONTON – Lily Choy, a foster mother twice convicted and twice sentenced in the death of a three-year-old boy under her care, may be headed for a third trial.
At the end of her second trial, in October, Choy was sentenced to six years in prison for manslaughter.
The Crown prosecutor’s office has now filed a notice of appeal of that sentence, Alberta Justice spokesman Josh Stewart said Friday.
The day that sentence was handed down, Crown prosecutor Allison Downey-Damato was disappointed and raised the possibility of an appeal. She had asked for a sentence of 12 to 16 years.
Choy has also filed a notice of appeal, though she is opposing both the guilty verdict and sentence. At trial, defence lawyer Mona Duckett had asked for a sentence of three years, which is what the 37-year-old Choy received for her first manslaughter conviction.
That first sentence, in 2008, was also appealed by the Crown and the defence.
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A date for the appeals to be heard has not been set.
In January 2007, the Edmonton nurse was caring for three foster children and her own two children in a west-end home, court has heard.
The three-year-old foster child died following an incident in the home on Jan. 26 of that year.
Choy testified in her own defence and claimed the boy had a history of “self-harming behaviour.”
She told court she awoke in the middle of the night to take the agitated boy to the washroom. She said he was screaming and struggling when he pushed away from her, and struck his head on a toilet. He soon lost consciousness. He died of a serious head injury, but also had multiple bruises over his body.
At the second trial, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Donna Read concluded that the boy’s injuries could not possibly have been self-inflicted and were not accidental.
“I find Mrs. Choy assaulted this child a number of times over a number of days leading up to the final assault,” Read said at the time. “I find these assaults increased in severity.”
Court also heard Choy would make the boy climb steps in the home late at night, severely limited his diet and repeatedly made him stay in an unheated garage as punishment, including on the night he died.
Also, Choy spanked the child hard enough to leave bruises in the days before he died. Defence lawyer Mona Duckett admitted that behaviour was “cruel and inappropriate.”
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