SASKATOON – The father of a toddler who died in foster care says he’s devastated after being told the Crown Prosecution won’t be proceding with an appeal.
Chris Martell’s son, Evander Daniels, was 22-months-old when he drowned in a bathtub in 2010 while in the care of foster mom Eunice Wudrich.
After an emotional trial in January, she was found not guilty of criminal negligence causing death.
The judge found that while the incident was tragic, it was not criminal.
The crown filed an appeal of the verdict in February but Martell says his lawyer called Tuesday morning to tell him they did not have grounds to move forward with it.
“We’re just real shocked at the news that it’s not going through as of now as we were shocked at the verdict of not guilty,” said Martell.
“There was a glimmer of hope for my family thinking we could proceed more with this but this is a dead end stop, there’s no closure for me or my family in this matter.”
Senior Crown Prosecutor Tony Gerein says they have now filed an abandonment of the case.
He says the only way to argue an appeal is to find if the judge made a “legal” error, something they believe had occurred soon after the trial.
“But after looking at the case as a whole, there was no reasonable likelihood of establishing the trial judge made a legal error,” said Gerein.
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