A Calgary woman found guilty in her seven-year-old son’s death by failing to seek medical treatment for his strep infection has failed to get her conviction tossed.
Tamara Lovett, 48, was sentenced Friday to three years in prison for criminal negligence causing death.
Lovett was found guilty in January after she failed to take her gravely ill son, Ryan, to a doctor in 2013.
A Jordan application was filed by Lovett’s lawyer in September because of delays in the legal proceedings. But Justice Kristine Eidsvik said Friday it would not be just to set aside the conviction.
The Supreme Court of Canada has put hard timelines on what are considered unreasonable delays and stipulates delays should not exceed 30 months in superior courts.
Watch below from Oct. 24: Frustration boiled over in a Calgary courtroom Tuesday, as lawyers presented arguments on an application that could see a Calgary woman convicted in her son’s death walk free. As Tracy Nagai reports, trial delays across the country are now being questioned.
In October, Lovett’s lawyer contended 38 months passed between Lovett’s arrest and her trial.
But the Crown argued only 32 months had passed and that the defence’s busy schedule got in the way of setting a trial date in June 2016 instead of November of the same year.
The Supreme Court’s ruling allows for flexibility based on transitional cases in which charges were laid before a ruling was made.
In a September sentencing hearing, the Crown had asked for between four and five years; the defence asked for one year plus probation.
With files from The Canadian Press