Supreme Court releases written decision in Goforth appeal

Six months after restoring Kevin Goforth’s manslaughter conviction, the Supreme Court of Canada has released its written reasons for the decision.

On Dec. 8, the top court upheld the conviction of Goforth, who had been found guilty in the starvation death of a four-year-old girl in the care of his family in 2012 and the near-death of her two-year-old sister.

Goforth initially was found guilty during a trial in 2016, but the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled that he was only a secondary caregiver and that the trial judge erred when she instructed the jury.

The Crown appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court, which restored his conviction and sent the case back to the Court of Appeal for consideration of the sentencing appeal.

In the Supreme Court’s written decision released Friday, Justice Suzanne Cote said Goforth would have been aware of what was happening but didn’t step in.

“Given the evidence of emaciation and neglect of the children, the accused’s alleged reliance on his wife, his alleged limited interaction with the girls, and the girls’ alleged history of being picky eaters and suffering from illness regularly were not circumstances material to the jury’s consideration of whether the accused had the requisite foresight to be criminally liable,” Cote wrote.

“The accused was well positioned to observe the children’s condition, yet he did nothing.”

She also said the trial judge’s instructions weren’t perfect, but the jury was well equipped to make a reasoned decision.

“When read as a whole, the trial judge’s instructions functionally conveyed the necessary legal principles,” Cote wrote.

“There is no reasonable possibility that the jury was confused about the required mens rea for failing to provide necessaries of life or misled about what the Crown had to prove in order for the jury to find the accused guilty of either manslaughter or unlawfully causing bodily harm.”

The four-year-old girl died in August of 2012 after being rushed to hospital; she died after being taken off life support.

According to the trial judge, the girl and her younger sister hadn’t been fed properly for three to four weeks and neither Kevin Goforth nor his wife, Tammy, sought medical attention for the girls.

After the Goforths’ initial trial, Kevin was sentenced to 15 years in prison and Tammy was given a life sentence with no chance of parole for 17 years.

The couple’s appeals were heard in 2019, with the decision released Feb. 2, 2021.

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal allowed Kevin’s appeal and ordered a new trial, but dismissed Tammy’s appeal. She had been convicted of second-degree murder when the couple was tried in 2016.

— With files by The Canadian Press