Court upgrades convictions against Calgary couple who killed Meika Jordan

CTV Calgary: Conviction upgraded against couple The Court of Appeal has upgraded the convictions of Marie Magoon and Spencer Jordan to first-degree murder. Kathy Le reports.

The couple convicted of murdering six-year-old Meika Jordan in 2011 will now serve a stiffer sentence for their crime after a Calgary judge upgraded their convictions from second-degree murder to first-degree murder.

Justice Paperny ruled in favour of the Crown on its appeal on Thursday and denied the appeals submitted by Marie Magoon and Spencer Jordan, the stepmother and biological father of Meika.

Meika died in November 2011, just a day after she was taken to the Alberta Children’s Hospital suffering from severe injuries.

According to court documents, she suffered a serious burn to the palm of her hand and Spencer Jordan attempted to hide the injury from Meika’s mother by asking her to allow him to keep custody of her over the weekend.

By the end of the weekend, both Spencer Jordan and Marie Magoon called 911 to report that Meika was in medical distress.

EMS found the girl unconscious and not breathing. Court documents say she had suffered multiple injuries, including a laceration of her pancreas, a tear of the liver, at least five serious blows to the head, extensive bruising all over her body, matted and broken hair that was torn in several places as well as the extensive burn on her hand.

Magoon and Jordan contended that the girl’s injuries were the result of a fall down the stairs, but the trial judge found that that was inconsistent with the expert testimony.

The pair admitted to their actions during an undercover operation conducted prior to their arrest, saying they abused Meika for four days before they finally took her to the hospital.

The court found during the original trial that both Magoon and Jordan knew about each other’s actions and admitted to disciplining her in different ways.

While the exact blow that caused Meika’s death was not determined during the trial, the presiding judge said that either Magoon or Jordan could have delivered the fatal blow during the course of the weekend.

Documents say that there was no doubt that each of them knew they were causing the girl serious bodily harm and had the intention of causing her harm.

They were originally convicted of second-degree murder on June 3, 2015, by Justice Rosemary Nation.

Now, under the new conviction, both Magoon and Jordan will serve life sentences with no chance of parole for 25 years.