A Calgary father charged with the second-degree murder of his four-year-old daughter last December will remain behind bars, for now.
Oluwatosin Oluwafemi made his first court appearance Thursday via CCTV from the Calgary Remand Centre.
His case was put over until Jan. 5, 2016 to allow his lawyer time to go over disclosure.
“I’ve got to see what the Crown’s theory is. We need some time for me to review the autopsy reports and the medical reports, and the medical examiner’s report to see exactly what happened,” defence lawyer Alain Hepner said.
“It’s upsetting, very upsetting. This event occurred a year ago; he consulted me more than once over the last year. We knew where he was, there were no decisions made by police,” Hepner said. “He was arrested on Tuesday in Ontario where he advised he had been and brought back, so it’s an upsetting, sad circumstance.”
Olive Rebekah Oluwafemi was found in cardiac arrest when emergency crews were called to a southeast home on Dec. 19, 2014. Police said she wasn’t breathing when she was taken to hospital, and died a short time later.
Olive’s death was deemed a homicide in January. Police said the cause of death was blunt force injuries, and said there were injuries upwards of weeks prior to the incident.
Calgary Police Staff. Sgt. Colin Chisholm said the family of three had been living in Calgary for approximately two years prior to the death of Olive, but left just weeks after her death.
Hepner told Global News Oluwafemi is an engineer in the oil industry, and left Calgary for Ontario in search of work after being laid off.
“This has been a year, as you can see he’s from Nigeria. He went east advising he would go east, so I will be talking to the Crown over the next few days about judicial interim release.”
Hepner said Oluwafemi has been in Canada for more than two and a half years as a permanent resident, and is not a Canadian citizen yet.
Police said he was a suspect from the beginning of the investigation, but it took a long time to lay charges because medical evidence in child and infant deaths is complicated.
“At the time, investigators believed the injuries that caused her death were inflicted within the family home, and were not the result of play, an accident such as falling down stairs, nor medical intervention consistent with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR),” police said in a release Wednesday. Chisholm said police were initially told Olive fell down stairs in the family home; police said that story doesn’t match the evidence.
Hepner is currently consulting with the Crown prosecutor to see if Oluwafemi could return to Ontario if released on bail.
Watch below: Staff Sgt. Colin Chisholm speaks to media after Calgary police charged Oluwatosin Oluwafemi with the second-degree murder of his daughter Olive in Dec. 2014.
With files from Global’s Bindu Suri and Erika Tucker
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