Mother of dead child speaks after closing arguments at Goodwill manslaughter trial

A mother whose three-month-old son died in October 2017 says she will begin to heal once the judge overseeing her former partner's manslaughter trial hands down his decision.

Catlin Wade Goodwill is charged with manslaughter in the death of his infant son, Keenan Spencer.

On Monday, Keenan's mother, Jodeci Spencer, spoke with media after closing arguments concluded at the Court of King's Bench in Regina. She described the past five years as painful and full of grief.

The trial — which lasted all of last week and Monday morning — has been particularly hard, she said.

"It just breaks my heart having to relive through all of this— having to relive through the night my son passed away," Spencer said.

'Onus is always on the Crown'

In closing arguments, defence attorney Bruce Campbell and senior Crown prosecutor Chris White offered contrasting versions of what happened the night Keenan died.

On Monday, the defence repeatedly stressed that Goodwill is presumed innocent and that it falls upon the Crown to prove Goodwill had committed an unlawful act that caused his son's death.

"The onus is always on the Crown," Campbell said.

The timeline for the incident comes from the the testimony of Jodeci Spencer, Keenan's mother,

Jodeci has said that she and Goodwill had an on-and-off relationship. She has two other sons with Goodwill, including one born after Keenan's death.

While they are no longer together, on the day of Keenan's death they had recently reconciled and moved in together.

Jodeci testified that on the evening of Oct. 14, 2017,she was reading to her older son at their home in the 3700 block of Regency Crescent when Goodwill told her, from another room, that Keenan was no longer breathing.

She called 911 after paramedics administered CPR, paramedics rushed the baby to the Regina General Hospital, where he was declared dead.

Under cross-examination by defence attorney Bruce Campbell, Jodeci confirmed that she told police on Oct. 14 that she had never seen Goodwill be violent with their children.

She also confirmed in her testimony that during that day Goodwill was the only one who touched Keenan.

A case based on circumstantial evidence

Both sides have acknowledged that the case is almost wholly circumstantial.

Although senior Crown prosecutor Chris White has said that child abuse rarely happens with witnesses, he said Goodwill was the only one with the "exclusivity of opportunity" to hurt Keenan.

"This is not a whodunit. A howdunit, sure, but not a whodunit," White said on Monday.

Testimony from Dr. Andreea Nistor, a forensic pathologist, and Dr. David Ramsey, a neuropatholgist called by the Crown, have detailed how an autopsy of the three-month-old found bruising on the back of Keenan's head as well as bleeding inside the skull.

The bruise, which could have only been caused while Keenan was still breathing, corresponded with the bleeding inside the skull. They said the bleeding was caused by blunt force trauma and that it was the cause of death.

However, they were unable to determine the mechanism that caused the trauma, saying it could have possibly been a blow to the head or the shaking of the three-month-old.

On cross examination, Ramsey said he could not dismiss the bruise being caused by the forceful CPR performed on the child by EMS when they responded to the scene.

However, he said, that would have required the child to be breathing and have blood circulating. EMS testified their efforts did not revive Keenan.

Nistor and Ramses were unable to say how hard the force would have been but said that a child's skull is very soft.

Clinical research lacking

The pathologists pointed to the lack of clinical research as a reason for their uncertainty. They explained that no one is willing to shake children or hit them on the head in order to collect data.

The Crown also called Dr. Juliet Soper, a pediatrician who works in the area of child maltreatment. She testified that the boy would not have developed the muscles necessary to cause the damage to himself.

The defence called only one witness, neuropathologist Dr. Roland Auer, who provided an alternative explanation for Keenan's death.

He dismissed the bruising on the back of the boy's head, saying it could have been the result of CPR performed by the paramedics.

Auer was also dismissive of the entire concept of shaken baby syndrome. He doesn't belive there exists enough scientific proof to confirm its existence.

He also said the bleeding in the skull could be explained by the normal post-death process.

Instead, he testified he believes pneumonia is the explanation for Keenan's death.

However, Nistor testified that although viruses were found in Keenan's airways they were not enough to have caused illness.

It will now be up to Justice Keith Kilback to decide which of the arguments he should give more weight. He has reserved his decision until March 16, 2023.