David Stephan

By The Canadian Press with files from Lethbridge News Now

Medical examiner tells Alberta trial lack of oxygen didn’t cause toddler’s death

Jun 11, 2019 | 4:07 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB — The medical examiner who did an autopsy on a 19-month-old boy says there was no suggestion a lack of oxygen had anything to do with the child’s death.

David and Collet Stephan are on trial in Court of Queen’s Bench in Lethbridge, on a charge of failing to provide the necessaries of life for their son Ezekiel.

During the Stephan’s trial in 2016, Dr. Bamidele Adeagbo testified that as a forensic pathologist at that time, he had completed over five thousand investigations into the cause and manner of death, saying his job is, “Telling the story of that person, that they cannot tell.”

After a day and a half on the stand during the current trial, and at least seven hours of cross-examination, by David Stephan, he was not yet qualified to testify as an expert witness.

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Dr. Adeagbo told court on Monday, June 10, that Ezekiel clearly died of bacterial meningitis and a lung infection in March 2012.

David Stephan, who’s representing himself, pointed out today that the first ambulance that tended to his son was missing key equipment, so his son was without oxygen for almost nine minutes.

Adeagbo said he tested the child’s brain tissue and there was no indication that he had been without oxygen.

The defence is challenging the pathologist’s qualifications to testify as an expert witness.

It is the second trial for the Stephans. A jury found them guilty in 2016, but the Supreme Court overturned the convictions last year and ordered a new trial. This one is before a judge alone.