A Yarmouth woman will be sentenced later this week in the death of her 17-month-old son.
Sentencing was supposed to take place Monday in Yarmouth Provincial Court for 32-year-old April Surette.
Her defence lawyer was unable to be in court due to illness, Surette was also not present.
Judge Mark Scott adjourned sentencing to Thursday at 1:30 p.m, saying he doesn’t want to deprive Surette of having her lawyer in attendance.
She pleaded guilty in December to a charge of manslaughter.
An agreed statement of facts from the Crown and defense say that in 2020, Surette, then 27, was struggling to establish a relationship with her son Isaiha.
He and Surette’s five other children had been in foster care from September to November of that year, they were returned to her care in early December.
On December 17, 2020, Surette was feeling overwhelmed as Isaiha was inconsolable.
In a moment of frustration while changing the boy’s diaper, she intentionally threw the child from a bed onto a hardwood floor.
The incident was witnessed by Surette’s seven-year-old son.
The boy was taken to Yarmouth Regional Hospital, and then airlifted to the IWK where he died on December 20.
His cause of death was ‘blunt head trauma,’ according to the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner, who noted swelling in the brain and hemorrhaging in several locations.
There’s a joint sentencing recommendation from the Crown and defence.
Surette is currently on strict release conditions.
