Republished September 18, 2015 - 4:24 PM
Original Publication Date September 18, 2015 - 2:50 PM
CALGARY - A father and stepmother who beat, burned, punched and dragged a little girl by the hair over three days, killing her, are going to jail for a long time.
Spencer Jordan and Marie Magoon were sentenced Friday to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 17 years for the death of six-year-old Meika Jordan in November 2011.
Justice Rosemary Nanton said words cannot describe the terrible things the couple did to the little girl.
The couple was originally charged with first-degree murder but were found guilty of second-degree murder in June after a five-week trial.
Court heard that Meika died in hospital of blunt force trauma.
During an undercover police investigation, Magoon and Jordan each admitted to abusing the child.
Jordan and Magoon told EMS that the girl had fallen down the stairs.
Kyla and Brian Woodhouse, Meika's mother and stepfather, said their victim impact statements were the final steps in a difficult emotional process that lasted years.
"It’s impossible to describe," said Brian. "We spent months and months drawing up draft after draft and throwing them out and rewording, rewriting.
"How do you ever put into words what kind of impact that has?"
"It’s kind of bittersweet, I guess," said Kyla. "These past few years we’ve always had that next date to look forward to and babysitters to plan and now it’s just kind of, 'What do we do with ourselves?'."
Kyla Woodhouse said the apologies her daughter's killers issued during Friday's proceedings came far too late.
"That’s something that should have happened four years ago. I mean, when it comes right down to it, I think it was decent of them to at least offer that to us, kind of a little bit of closure for us on our end."
"In no way do we accept it as an apology. That's nothing you can apologize for."
The Woodhouses say they're not disappointed with the outcome. They're glad the judge heard their pleas and that Meika's killers will spend a considerable time behind bars.
(CTV Calgary, CFFR)
News from © The Canadian Press, 2015