Winnipeg father guilty of manslaughter after shaking, hitting or throwing infant son in 2020: judge | CBC News

The mother of a three-month-old boy who died from a traumatic brain injury in 2020 burst into tears in a Winnipeg courtroom on Friday and later hugged a prosecutor who worked on the case after the infant’s father was convicted of manslaughter.

Mathieu Moreau, 34, was home alone watching three-month-old Maven Gillis-Moreau on the evening of Jan. 11, 2020, when the baby was found unresponsive.

He was rushed to hospital in serious medical distress, and found to have a broken clavicle and leg and swelling and bleeding of the brain. The infant was later pronounced brain dead and taken off life support.

While Moreau denied hurting his son that night, Court of King’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond said she didn’t accept the testimony he gave during the trial, as she found him guilty of manslaughter in the baby’s death.

In her written decision, she said she found Moreau “evasive and inconsistent,” calling his testimony “contrived in some respects.”

At one point, she found he was “fabricating” testimony in an effort to align his story with expert evidence and show the fatal brain injury had already happened before he got home.

“When I consider the evidence that I do accept, I’m satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Moreau caused Maven’s fatal traumatic brain injury,” Bond said in court, as family members of both Moreau and Maven’s mother, 26-year-old Evelyn Gillis, comforted each of them on opposite sides of the gallery.

“I find that Mr. Moreau inflicted some form of assault on Maven. That assault may have included shaking Maven, hitting him, throwing him or any combination of those acts.”

Did not find accused ‘a credible witness’: judge

Prosecutors argued during the trial that Moreau “violently assaulted” his son out of frustration that night because the infant wouldn’t go to sleep. 

Moreau’s lawyers said both parents had the opportunity to cause the injuries, because the baby’s mother was watching him before Moreau got home.

Moreau testified he woke up from a nap that evening to hear gurgling sounds coming from the baby’s crib and found Maven not breathing properly, with formula coming out of his mouth, before he called 911.

Experts testified during the trial that Maven’s fatal brain injury was caused by what Bond called “non-accidental trauma,” and that symptoms of a fatal brain injury usually happen immediately. They can vary from a slow progression that begins with things like lethargy and irritability to severe symptoms like going into medical distress, court heard.

WATCH | Videos of baby who died in 2020 shown during trial:

Videos of baby who died in 2020 shown during trial of Winnipeg father accused of manslaughter

Mathieu Moreau, 34, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and aggravated assault in connection with the death of his three-month-old son. Maven Gillis Moreau was put on life support and later died after being found unconscious while Moreau was watching him in their Winnipeg apartment in January 2020.

While Moreau testified his son appeared “sleepy” and wouldn’t drink from his bottle when he got home to watch him after band practice that evening, the judge said the kind of symptoms the experts described — crying and fussiness without reprieve, and lethargy that puts a child to sleep with their caregiver unable to rouse them — didn’t square with that.

“I do not accept Mr. Moreau’s testimony that Maven was sleepy and would not feed,” the judge said. “I did not find Mr. Moreau to be a credible witness.”

Justice Bond added she found Gillis’s testimony “straightforward and believable,” and that from what the court heard the woman was a devoted mother who left a happy, healthy baby at home with Moreau that evening.

The judge said she was satisfied by the experts’ opinions that symptoms of a fatal brain injury usually happen immediately, and that those symptoms would have been noticeable to a caregiver.

Not guilty on assault charge, though circumstances ‘highly suspicious’

Moreau was also found not guilty on Friday of one count of assault, related to an incident a day before the infant was rushed to hospital, when he suffered a tear to his frenulum (the connective tissue inside the upper lip). 

One medical expert who testified during the trial said the frenulum injury gave her “a tremendous amount of concern” and is considered indicative of child abuse, consistent with something like a bottle being forcefully put in the baby’s mouth, prosecutor Sarah Murdoch said during closing arguments last month.

Another expert who testified said the injury could have also been caused by the baby’s face striking a hard surface, Justice Bond said.

Moreau testified he assumed that injury was caused by a toy — a plastic elephant — the baby put in his mouth, which the father said he had found saliva on. The judge called that explanation “simply not plausible,” since the toy, which was submitted as evidence, had no obvious jagged or sharp edges.

However, Justice Bond said while it seems likely the injury was caused by an assault, she couldn’t rule out the cause being accidental beyond a reasonable doubt.

“While the circumstances are highly suspicious, I must consider other possible reasonable alternatives,” she said.

Moreau remains out on bail with conditions. No sentencing date has been set.