The Manitoba Court of Appeal will hear arguments Wednesday morning on why it should throw out the conviction of a Winnipeg woman found guilty of concealing the remains of six infants in a storage locker.
Andrea Giesbrecht was sentenced to 8½ years in prison in July 2017. With time already served factored in, Giesbrecht, 44, is expected to spend another six years and five months in prison.
Her lawyer, Greg Brodsky said Tuesday he plans to present 41 grounds to appeal both her conviction and her consecutive sentence which he calls « harsh and excessive. »
Giesbrecht’s appeal before a panel of judges is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. CST at the Law Courts Building in Winnipeg.
CBC will stream the hearing live online.
The six infant remains, which medical experts testified were at or near full term, were found by employees in a U-Haul storage locker Giesbrecht rented in 2014, but she failed to keep up with her payments.
Brodsky argues Giesbrecht was never granted the presumption of innocence by her trial judge nor police and was sentenced as though the infants were alive at birth.
At what point the infants died and what caused their deaths could not be determined at trial because the remains were too badly decomposed.
« She can’t be convicted and sentenced as if she’s a killer. She can’t be convicted as if she failed to get medical attention or assistance in childbirth. She can’t be convicted and sentenced of anything except what she’s convicted of, which is concealing the products of conception, » said Brodsky.
« In giving consecutive sentences [Judge Murray Thompson ] assumed that they were live births, » said Brodsky.
Thompson said each of the six infants represented six separate offences and Giesbrecht’s moral culpability increased after the first offence. He sentenced her to six months for the first infant, one year for the second, and two years for each of the four other infants found, for a total of 9½ years.
The sentence was later reduced by one year.
‘Looked on with abhorrence’
If her conviction stands, Brodsky will argue Wednesday Giesbrecht should be allowed to return to the community on probation so she can resume volunteering for Winnipeg charities, including Siloam Mission.
« She doesn’t want to go to prison for what she did, » said Brodsky.
« She thought they were stillborn. She has two children right now. We don’t want them to have their lives put upside down because of what happens with their mother. »
Brodsky said his client has learned from her experience, although she did and continues to wish the remains of the six infants be « saved. »
« She knows what she did is looked on with abhorrence and she should have got a doctor and she would in the future. »
Brodsky filed a notice of appeal of the conviction in the fall of 2017. He also sought bail for his client while she waited for the appeal hearing to be held, but was denied in April 2018.
At the time, Court of Appeal Justice Michel Monnin said the case was unprecedented and the « accused has been found guilty of a number of serious crimes. »
In his ruling, provincial court Judge Murray Thompson said he was convinced that Giesbrecht was the mother of all six infants — five males and one female — found in plastic bins and pails she stored with the intention of concealing their births.
Giesbrecht did not testify during her trial, leaving many questions surrounding the babies unanswered.