The Edmonton woman whose dogs fatally mauled an 11-year-old boy failed to take \u201cconcrete\u201d steps to control the animals after a string of previous attacks, a Crown prosecutor argued on the final day of her trial.<\/p>\n
The woman\u2019s defence lawyer, meanwhile, said the Crown hadn\u2019t proven its case, arguing the boy\u2019s father also played a significant role in the tragedy.<\/p>\n
Court of King\u2019s Bench Justice Eric Macklin heard closing arguments Tuesday in the trial of Crystal MacDonald, who was charged with criminal negligence after her two Cane Corsos killed Kache Grist at her south Edmonton home in 2024.<\/p>\n
Macklin is expected to give his decision in the case Friday.<\/p>\n
\u2018Openly not being followed\u2019<\/p>\n
Kache, the son of MacDonald\u2019s roommate Wesley Grist, lived in B.C. and visited his father during spring break 2024. MacDonald testified that at the time, she was struggling with what to do after her dogs were involved in a series of attacks. In the year leading up to Kache\u2019s death, the Cane Corsos had killed a Pomeranian, bitten MacDonald and her roommate, attacked a former dog sitter and killed a roommate\u2019s cat.<\/p>\n
MacDonald said she told Wesley Grist that she didn\u2019t want Kache visiting until the dogs had been trained. She had inquired with a trainer specializing in large dogs, but had been told the first availability was months away. She also planned to have the dogs neutered, but missed the appointment while grieving a deceased friend.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Anders Quist said that at the time of Kache\u2019s death, MacDonald\u2019s approach to controlling the dogs was a \u201cmarked and substantial departure\u201d from what a reasonable person would have done in the same circumstances. Instead of having the animals euthanized or boarding them while a child stayed in her home, he said, MacDonald relied on in-home kennels and specific instructions to her roommates about when the dogs could be released.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese instructions were openly not being followed, according to her evidence,\u201d Quist said. \u201cFor the duration of Kache\u2019s spring break, she ultimately settled on Kache\u2019s safety being someone else\u2019s problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
MacDonald testified she told Grist not to leave his son alone with the dogs, but Quist said that in prior attacks, even multiple adults were not enough to stop the dogs.<\/p>\n
Quist told court that if MacDonald is acquitted, the Crown intends to seek a peace bond banning her from owning dogs.<\/p>\n
\u2018She did what she could\u2019<\/p>\n
Defence lawyer Evan McIntyre said the Crown has failed to prove his client\u2019s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt<\/p>\n
\u201cShe did what she could to keep Kache safe,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can\u2019t punish her just because the steps she took didn\u2019t work or were ignored by other parties.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIntyre stressed that he wasn\u2019t blaming Kache or his father for the boy\u2019s death. But he noted Kache was alone in the house for 45 minutes after last seeing his father, who was working in the garage, and there is no evidence what might have set off the attack<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m in no way trying to blame a young boy for the consequences that befell him, but we simply don\u2019t know,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grist failed to follow MacDonald\u2019s instructions about the dogs, McIntyre added.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer first position was, \u2018Please don\u2019t bring your son here until we can deal with the dogs,’\u201d he said. \u201cHe put her in a very difficult position here. In the moment she felt she didn\u2019t have a choice but to let Kache stay there, with strict parameters.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the circumstances here, it was reasonable for her to believe the child\u2019s father would follow her rules.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
McIntyre added that MacDonald was under no legal obligation to have the dogs put down. Animal control officers visited the house after the attack on the dog sitter but declined to seize the dogs because the victim was in \u201ccare and control\u201d of the animals at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo steps were taken,\u201d McIntyre said. \u201cThey could have applied to seize the dogs. They could have applied to have them deemed dangerous.\u201d <\/p>\n
Both dogs were seized by the City of Edmonton and euthanized after the 2024 attack.<\/p>\n
jwakefield@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n x.com\/jonnywakefield <\/a><\/p>\n @jonnywakefield.bsky.social<\/a><\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don\u2019t miss the news you need to know \u2014 add EdmontonJournal.com<\/a> and EdmontonSun.com<\/a> to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal<\/a> | The Edmonton Sun<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Edmonton woman whose dogs fatally mauled an 11-year-old boy failed to take \u201cconcrete\u201d steps to control the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[250212,49,48,64886,23752,250211,245548,246981],"class_list":["post-681809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-anders-quist","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-criminal-negligence","tag-edmonton","tag-eric-macklin","tag-kache-grist","tag-wesley-grist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}