Kinsey Gordon Jerry pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Calgary on Friday in connection with the death of his four-month-old daughter Honey on Jan. 31, 2007.
The 30-year-old Siksika man, admitted to being responsible for the cranial trauma that led to Honey’s death at a northwest Calgary home where the two were living, along with Honey’s mother and grandparents.
In an agreed statement of facts, Jerry admitted his girlfriend left Honey in his care while she went to do laundry at her aunt’s home. Shortly after Jerry’s girlfriend left, he ran to a neighbour saying he needed to call 911. The neighbour went to see Honey and called 911 for a “child not breathing and limp.” The neighbour tried to perform CPR while waiting for the ambulance to arrive; Jerry told the neighbour he was feeding Honey when she simply stopped breathing.
Jerry said he fed Honey and then began burping her, and she began vomiting.
He claimed at some point he noticed she was turning blue and unresponsive so he began to shake her. When she would occasionally take a breath, he said he could hear bubbles. Police said during their investigation they only found a minimal amount of vomit, and an autopsy found that Honey died of cranial trauma caused by “sufficient force to cause severe brain injuries.” The autopsy found Jerry significantly contributed to Honey’s death by shaking the infant.
READ MORE: Man charged with death of infant daughter in 2007
Jerry also pleaded guilty to assaulting his young son who the court referred to only as “U.J.” in a separate incident on Siksika Nation several years later.
Jerry was living in a house with U.J. and his mother, not related to Honey.
In an agreed statement of facts, Jerry said that on Sept. 26, 2011, his girlfriend decided to take a shower and left U.J., four-month-old at the time, in his care while he played video games. He said he put U.J. in between his legs and that U.J. had been crying a lot that day. At one point, when U.J. began to cry, Jerry said he hit him in the head with his hand before jamming his fingers down the infant’s throat to make the crying stop. He said he put his son in his crib and kept playing his video game. When his girlfriend got out of the shower and checked on the boy, she noticed something was not right.
Jerry said he called 911 and when paramedics arrived they noticed several signs of severe injury to the back of U.J.’s head along with torn tonsils among other things.
The boy was flowing by STARS to the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary where it was determined U.J. had suffered a fractured skull.
In March of 2013, Jerry confessed to assaulting U.J. while being interviewed by the RCMP.
“How could you say that to anybody?” Jerry replied when the officer asked him why he didn’t tell U.J.’s mother he hurt the boy. “How could you tell somebody that?”
The court heard on Thursday that U.J. suffered a significant brain injury as a result of the attack but that it’s unclear how much he is still affected as the boy is also believed to be suffering from Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.
READ MORE: Warrant issued for man charged with serious assault of infant
It isn’t yet clear when Jerry will be sentenced.
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