*Warning: this article contains disturbing content.
Sobs erupted in a Vancouver courtroom Friday when a man was found not guilty of murdering his seven-week-old daughter in Burnaby in 2015.
Friends and family of James Travis Park cried and hugged him outside of the courtroom after B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jeanne Watchuk said he was free to go.
One person could be heard saying, “The nightmare is over.”
'Waste of a life'
Park’s daughter died six days after being taken to hospital by ambulance on the night of March 1, 2015.
An autopsy revealed her death had been caused by “significant” blunt force trauma to the back of her head, leaving the infant with a complex skull fracture and brain damage.
The examination also revealed other injuries, including bruising to the right side of her forehead, a fractured rib, bruising to both ears and factures in her left and right lower tibias.
Park was arrested more than a year later and charged with second-degree murder in her death.
During a 29-hour period in custody at the Burnaby RCMP detachment, he was questioned by police.
“Waste of a life, f***in’ five seconds,” Park had said, according to a transcript.
“What do you mean, man?” asked an interviewer.
“What a waste of a life, for a decision that I made so quickly.”
“You just snapped? Is that what you mean by it happened so quickly?”
“Yeah.”
“Was she crying?”
“Huh?”
“Was she crying?”
“Yeah and I was f***in’ hammered, like beyond.”
Park had been alone at home with his daughter on March 1, 2015, after his common-law partner, the baby’s mother, went to a yoga class and family friends who had been over to watch a hockey game went home.
“In the Crown’s submission, Mr. Park had motive for committing the offence because his plan for the night failed, leaving him frustrated and alone with a crying infant, when all he wanted to do was watch the hockey game with a friend,” Watchuk said in her ruling.
Loving father
But Watchuk rejected that theory as “preposterous,” in light of evidence from the family friends, who testified Park had spent much of the evening playing with their children (then aged four and two) and not watching the game. When the children got noisy, Park had said they were just kids being kids, according to the friends. The friends further noted Park was very capable of settling down his own daughter and indicated he was a loving father.
Prosecutors argued Park was the only person who could have been responsible for his daughter’s death because he was the only one home with her between the time the family friends left and a 911 call made at 9:35 p.m.
Watchuk, however, pointed to evidence the baby’s mother had also been at the house for at least 13 minutes between getting home from yoga and the 911 call.
“I find that Mr. Park did not have the exclusive opportunity to cause injuries to A,” Watchuk said.
Watchuk further said the evidence presented by two medical experts didn’t establish whether or not all of the baby’s injuries were sustained during the same incident or what “mechanism” caused the injuries.
“Dr. Orde and Dr. Dunham, both learned in their fields and witnesses of the utmost expertise, testified that they could not opine on whether the trauma to the head occurred when something hit Adriana’s head or her head hit something,” Watchuk said.
As for Park’s statements to police, Watchuk said they were unreliable and pointed to his innocence as well as his guilt.
For one thing, Watchuk rejected the idea that Park had been drunk – as he told police he had been – on the night his daughter was injured since “not one witness described Mr. Park as intoxicated at any time on March 1.”
Ultimately, Watchuk ruled prosecutors had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Park had caused the death of his baby girl by an unlawful act.
“Accident is, I find, a reasonable alternate inference to guilt on the facts of this case,” Watchuk said. “I reach this conclusion from the gaps in the medical evidence, the statement of Mr. Park, taken as a whole, including both inculpatory and exculpatory aspects, the evidence regarding the character of Mr. Park and the absence of motive.”
Park declined the NOW’s request for comment.
His lawyer, Richard Fowler said only, “It’s a tragedy.”
