CANADA • Jeffrey BALDWIN, 5 ~ Toronto ON

Ont. child starvation convictions to be appealed
Lawyer to argue client is not smart enough to know boy would die
February 5, 2011


Justice David Watt sentenced Norman Kidman
and his wife, Elva Bottineau, to life.

A woman sentenced to life in prison for the "horrific" starvation death of her grandson was not smart enough to be convicted of murder in the case, Ontario's top court is being told.

Elva Bottineau wants the Appeal Court to overturn her second-degree murder conviction in the death of her five-year-old grandson Jeffrey Baldwin.

In material filed ahead of the appeal — slated for March 2 — Bottineau's lawyer Anil Kapoor argues his client didn't realize the starving boy would die.

"Although the facts of this case make the temptation to find Ms. Bottineau guilty of murder overwhelming, there is simply no evidence capable of proving that Ms. Bottineau intended to kill Jeffrey, or that she appreciated he was going to die."

Jeffrey, who weighed just 21 pounds when he died in November 2002, was treated like a dog. He ate out of a bowl with his fingers and often drank from a toilet when he was thirsty, her trial heard.

His cause of death was complications from prolonged starvation.

A pediatrician testified at trial five years ago that Jeffrey had likely been semi-comatose for weeks.

Kapoor notes that an expert in neuropsychology testified at trial that with an IQ of about 69 — borderline mental retardation — Bottineau is less intelligent than about 98 per cent of the population.

Baldwin, sister, were confined to bedroom
Witnesses told court Jeffrey and his sister were confined to an unheated bedroom for as long as 14 hours a day, breathing in the stench of their own urine and feces.

Although the siblings lived in squalor, the rest of the house was normal, including the living quarters of other children in the home, court was told.

Bottineau's longtime common-law partner, Norman Kidman, was also convicted in 2006 of second-degree murder.

He is asking the court to quash his conviction and instead send him to prison for manslaughter.

The couple was supposed to be saviours for Jeffrey and his siblings — who had been abused by their birth parents — but instead the pair used them as a source of income, collecting government support cheques in their names.

By all accounts Bottineau was the primary caregiver and set the rules, while Kidman rarely interacted with the children.

Kidman had offered to plead guilty to manslaughter, and that is what he should have been convicted of, not murder, his lawyer Emily Morton argues.

Ontario Superior Court Justice David Watt called the couple "morally bankrupt" when he sentenced Bottineau to serve at least 22 years and Kidman to at least 20 years before they could apply for parole.

In their appeal documents, they argue Watt erred in convicting them.

Bottineau intended to keep Jeffrey alive — "albeit in abusive and horrific circumstances" — because she wanted to collect support money, Kapoor states.

He wants the court to acquit Bottineau outright. Failing that, he wants the convictions quashed and a new trial ordered, or her parole eligibility reduced.

If the court won't substitute a manslaughter conviction for Kidman, Morton is asking for a new trial or a lower parole eligibility.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2011/02/05/bottineau-baldwin-appeal.html#ixzz1D7Uda86z



Background articles to 5-yr-old Jeffrey Baldwin's story:

FAILING JEFFREY | Elva Bottineau and Norman Kidman | Witness: 'Couldn't believe it was the same child'

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Couple appeal convictions after grandson starved to death
March 2, 2011


Five-year-old Jeffrey Baldwin died in November 2002 from complications from chronic starvation
he weighed about the same as when he was 15 months old - 21 pounds.

TORONTO — A Toronto couple currently serving life sentences for starving their five-year-old grandson to death are asking Ontario's top court to reconsider their second-degree murder convictions.

Lawyers for Elva Bottineau and Norman Kidman began arguments Wednesday before a three-judge panel at the Ontario Court of Appeal.

In November 2002, two months before his sixth birthday, Jeffrey Baldwin died from complications related to malnutrition. The boy had suffered from chronic starvation and had been locked in a room for up to 14 hours each day, given little food, forced to drink from a toilet and sit in his own feces and urine.

When he died, Jeffrey weighed 21 pounds — which was his weight when he came to live with his grandparents at the age of 15 months. His height had also been stunted to the height of a two-and-a-half-year-old.

Jeffrey and his siblings — who were abused by their parents — came to live with the couple after child welfare authorities placed them there. Bottineau and Kidman used the children to collect government support cheques.

Calling the circumstances surrounding Jeffrey's death "horrific," Bottineau's lawyer James Stribopoulos argued that the conviction should be overturned because his client does not possess the mental capacity to realize such treatment would result in her grandson's death.

READ MORE

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March 3, 2011

Ontario’s highest court has ordered convicted murderers Elva Bottineau and Norman Kidman to serve their life sentences for the grotesque starvation killing of their grandson.

Associate Chief Justice Dennis O’Connor dismissed the couple’s appeal of the second-degree murder convictions and sentence Thursday without hearing from the Crown attorneys.

Bottineau, now 59, and Kidman, now 58, were convicted of murder in 2006 by Justice David Watt for the Nov. 20, 2002 death of Baldwin, who was just six weeks shy of his sixth birthday.

The emaciated Baldwin died of septic shock and pneumonia, which were complications of his severe malnutrition. His body was so bereft of fat that his rib cage and tendons were exposed.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2011/03/03/17483886.html

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Appeals dismissed for couple convicted in Toronto boy's 2006 starvation death

TORONTO - Two appeals in the horrific case of a five-year-old boy who starved to death in his grandparents' home were dismissed Thursday by Ontario's highest court.

. . . . . Justice David Doherty, one of the three judges who heard the appeal, said the trial judge had taken Bottineau's low intellect into account when sentencing her to life in prison.

"He finds that she's of limited intellect, but she's also a lying, manipulative person," Doherty said Thursday.

The judges also dismissed arguments that Kidman played no part in Jeffrey's abuse.

"He's there every day, his room is next to the dungeon that these kids were being tortured in," Doherty said Wednesday.

"There's all kinds of evidence that he knocked this kid around."

Kidman was Bottineau's longtime common-law partner. The pair were designated as legal guardians for Jeffrey and his sister, who had suffered abuse at the hands of their birth parents.

Bottineau and Kidman used the children as a source of income, collecting government support cheques in their names while they confined them to a dark, unheated room that reeked of urine and feces.

READ MORE