Alberta’s top court has upheld the conviction of a Calgary man for killing his girlfriend’s young daughter after murdering the mother.
In a unanimous decision released Tuesday, a three member Alberta Court of Appeal panel said Justice Keith Yamauchi made no errors in concluding Leeming had murdered little Aliyah Sanderson.
Leeming admitted murdering Lovett, entering a plea to second-degree murder at the start of his trial in October, 2021, but maintained his innocence in the death of little Aliyah.
But Yamauchi convicted him of causing the child’s death, rejecting his claim she suffered her injuries in a fall while trying to climb a set of stairs inside his Calgary townhouse.
“The trial judge was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Aliyah died as a result of the intentional acts or acts of the appellant,” the appeal judges wrote.
“He reached this conclusion after proper consideration of all the evidence.”
In arguing for a conviction in the toddler’s death, then-Crown prosecutor Doug Taylor suggested Leeming killed Aliyah after murdering Lovett on April 16, 2019, to cover up the woman’s death.
But defence counsel Balfour Der countered the child’s injuries weren’t consistent with the prosecution’s theory.
Der said if Leeming had murdered Aliyah after killing her mother it would have made sense for him to use either of the weapons he used to kill Lovett, but noted the head wounds that caused the child’s fatal bleeding on her brain didn’t even break the skin.
After the murders, Leeming buried both bodies in shallow graves in Kananaskis Country.
Taylor noted the killer told undercover officers posing as his new criminal friends why he killed Lovett, but he never referred to Aliyah, even to explain her death was accidental.
“There are no points in bad guy land for killing kids,” said Taylor, referring to the fact Leeming never raised the possibility he wasn’t responsible for the girl’s death.
“No one would pass up that opportunity unless it was not an accident.”
Yamauchi agreed, finding the girl was killed after her mother was slain.
On appeal, Der argued Yamauchi erred by rejecting Leeming’s evidence of an accidental fall.
But the appeal judges said the Court of King Bench Judge’s reasoning was sound.
“The trial judge provided a detailed review of the appellant’s evidence,” they said.
“He gave specific examples of the appellant lying or ‘misdirecting’ police, reporters in pre-charge interviews and the court on a wide range of issues surrounding the deaths of both Jasmine and Aliyah. Not surprisingly, he concluded that the appellant was ‘not a believable witness,’ with lies ‘manifest throughout his testimony.’”
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