Sign up for the paNOW newsletter

Jordan Crowe trial hears closing arguments

Dec 7, 2010 | 4:08 PM

After more than a week of presenting evidence to the jury, defence lawyer Greg Chovin and Crown prosecutor Jennifer Claxton-Viczko gave their closing arguments today in court.

Now, Jordan Crowe’s fate is left in the jury’s hands.

Crowe is charged with second-degree murder for allegedly killing his three-year-old stepson, Dilyn Donald on Dec. 23, 2007.

Chovin presented reasons as to why he feels there is reasonable doubt in this case, starting with the mother, Jennine Donald.

He argued that Jennine showed little emotion while giving her statement to Staff Sgt. Jeff Rowden shortly after her child’s death and that her story constantly changed, not only during the statements she gave to police, but in court as well.

“People don’t lie, unless they have a reason to lie,” Chovin said in court.

Jennine had originally told police she was only gone from the house for about 20 minutes, then later changed her story that she was gone for about an hour to prostitute herself to buy food for the family.

However, after Chovin showed her pictures of her home stocked full of food that day, she said she wasn’t prostituting and was gone for a much shorter period of time.

Jennine also only stated that her mother, Heather Desjarlais, picked up Dilyn for a period of time on the day Dilyn died at the preliminary hearing. She also said that Desjarlais threatened to kill her if she told police she had done so. Desjarlais denied both taking Dilyn that day, as well as uttering threats to her daughter.

He also brought up a statement given by pathologist Dr. Shaun Ladham in court, in which he said Dilyn would’ve been comatose within 10 to 15 minutes after sustaining his injuries.

Chovin said both parents stated Dilyn had been lethargic and wouldn’t eat throughout the later part of the day, both which are symptoms of the brain swelling.

Claxton-Viczko said to the jury that the evidence given in court shows that Crowe is guilty.

She said that all the doctors called upon as witnesses agreed it was brunt force trauma that caused Dilyn’s death and that the doctors’ assessments of the amount of time it would’ve taken to die were consistent.

“Who did it? He didn’t fall. He didn’t do it to himself,” said Claxton-Viczko in court.

Addressing Jennine, Claxton-Viczko said the defence inferring she did it doesn’t fit. Claxton-Viczko told the jury not to dismiss everything Jennine said, but to look at the statements which are supported by others.

Claxton-Viczko suggested that Jennine actually was prostituting herself that night, and continued to change her alibi to not assist herself, but rather try and help Crowe.

Claxton-Viczko suggested to the jury that Crowe was upset being left alone with the two children, and wasn’t pleased with Dilyn’s fussiness and making a mess.

She pointed out Dilyn is not Crowe’s biological son, and that he told police in his statement that Jennine looks after him most of the time. Claxton-Viczko said that she looks at Crowe’s emotional state during his interview in another light, and that’s of someone who can’t control his emotions.

She suggested to the court that Crowe got angry with Dilyn, hit his head against a floor or wall repeatedly.

The jury begin their deliberation on Thursday.

rpilon@panow.com