Emotions pour out as six-year-old’s killers sentenced

Tears of anger, exhaustion and relief flowed at the Calgary courthouse Friday, as the killers of a six-year-old girl were given their sentence.

Spencer Jordan and Marie Magoon were sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 17 years for the second-degree murder of Jordan’s daughter Meika in 2011.

The Crown was asking for over 20 years, while Magoon’s lawyer wanted 13 to 15 and Jordan’s requested 10 to 12.

The little girl was brutally beaten and tortured by Jordan and stepmother Magoon, including getting her hand burned, being dragged up and down stairs and punched.

Five impact statements were read by her family in front of a packed courtroom of supporters, most shedding tears throughout their words.

The first was by her stepfather Brian Woodhouse.

“You forced us to live a parent’s worst nightmare,” he said. “But what you continued to do was so much worse, so heinous and selfish. You forced us to stand with you as we said our final goodbye and listened to her heart take its final beat.”

“You’re not sorry for what you did, only that you were caught doing it.”

After three other statements, the last was by Meika’s mother, Kyla Woodhouse.

“Words cannot express the pain and loss, the sorrow and anguish, the shear devastation myself and family have experienced these last few years without our Meika,” she said on the stand. “I will never again get to see her smile, hear her laugh or watch her play. Never get to meet her best friends or boyfriends, teach her how to do makeup or accessorize and outfit. To hold her in her hard times and praise her in her good.”

Jordan and Magoon also addressed the court, beginning with Magoon who spoke to Kyla directly.

“I really am sorry Kyla, Meika was a beautiful girl,” she said also crying. “It saddens me to every day to know that I failed her.”

“I wish I could take it back.”

Then Jordan stood up, leaned over and looked at the family.

“I’m sorry, I know sorry doesn’t bring her back,” he said. “I disagree with my lawyer, I’m not a victim, Meika’s the victim.”

“If I could do anything to bring her back, I would.”

Justice Rosemary Nation addressed their actions before the sentence.

“Words cannot describe the egregious nature of this crime,” she said. “These offenders abused a child in a position of trust and authority.”

After Nation delivered the decision and left the courthouse, the Woodhouses hugged their counsel as their friends, family and members of Bikers Against Child Abuse did the same.

Outside the courthouse, Brian described what it was like on the stand.

“How do you ever put into words what kind of impact that has?” he said. “It’s a very, very difficult process, but at the same time, it’s a very rewarding one and it’s the chance for us as victims to finally be able to stand up and tell people that this is what you did to us and this is the impact it has.”

Kyla discussed hearing the killers comments.

“I think it was too little, too late to be honest,” she said, but did add it was decent of them to address their actions. “It was kind of a little bit of closure on our end to finally see some emotion and some kind of overall humanity out of them, but in no way do we accept it as an apology, it’s nothing you can apologize for.”

Kyla also pointed out where they go from here, now that there isn’t another court date to go to.

“Now we take our mission to the next level and we make sure that this doesn’t happen anymore,” she said, also praising the work of the Crown prosecutors.

One of the those lawyers, Susan Pepper, acknowledged the bond with the family.

“We’ve seen them a lot for the last couple of years and got to know a little bit about them and it’s been, it’s been emotional for us too of course, but they’ve been great supports to us, which is beyond what they need to do, so we do appreciate that very much,” she said.