ASIRT investigating EPS letter to Crown concerning killing of 8-year-old girl

Alberta’s police watchdog says it is investigating a letter the Edmonton Police Service sent to the Crown about the plea deal in the death of a child.

Alberta’s police watchdog is investigating a letter sent by the Edmonton Police Service to Crown prosecutors objecting its plan to accept a manslaughter plea for Ashley Rattlesnake.

Rattlesnake pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2023 killing of eight-year-old Nina Napope Dumais earlier this year. She was sentenced to eight years.

According to an agreed statement of facts, Dumais was living in an Edmonton apartment when she suffered a fatal head injury on April 22, 2023.

Officers began looking for the girl two days later in the area of 165 Street and 87 Avenue after they were called to conduct a welfare check. Dumais could not be located and the homicide section was called to help investigate.

Court documents say the girl’s body was put in a hockey bag which was then placed in the trunk of a car and transported to Maskwacis, about 80 kilometres south of Edmonton.

Police found Dumais’ body on April 28, 2023, still in the hockey bag which was in the bed of an inoperable truck. She was identified using DNA testing.

Rattlesnake was originally charged by EPS with first-degree murder and indignity to a dead body. A judge later reduced the charge to second-degree murder.

EPS was informed that the Crown intended to accept a guilty plea from Rattlesnake to manslaughter with an eight-year sentence.

“If this plea agreement is allowed to go through, we do not believe that justice will be served,” said the letter.

Police threatened to release additional information about the killing if the guilty manslaughter plea was accepted.

The letter received criticism from the Edmonton Criminal Trial Lawyers’ Association, whose president called it “inappropriate” and “dangerous.”

EPS presented an 80-page summary of the investigation to the courts, depicting significant child abuse and what they considered reasonable grounds to charge Rattlesnake with first-degree murder.

Court heard that Dumais faced chronic abuse and neglect before her death. She had been living with Rattlesnake since September 2022.

Rattlesnake had been drinking and using methamphetamine the night Dumais was found lying on the floor in the home, bleeding next to a hole in the wall.

An autopsy revealed that Dumais had multiple previous broken bones and injuries as well as sepsis due to an untreated infected tooth.

“Our position is that to allow this plea deal to go ahead would be to bring the administration of justice into disrepute and constitute a significant miscarriage of justice,” read the EPS letter.

Justice Jody Fraser identified potential misconduct associated with the letter, prompting an investigation by Alberta’s Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT).

ASIRT has categorized the letter as a Level 1 complaint, which includes incidents involving serious injury or death and serious or sensitive allegations involving police conduct.

The police watchdog said it would not comment further on the investigation, but said it will be conducted “carefully, fairly and without predetermined conclusions.”

The Edmonton Police Commission said it could not provide a comment during the active investigation.

With files from The Canadian Press