Case Summary
On the morning of April 2, 2004, Michael Terry answered the door to find his neighbour’s partner, James Turpin, distraught and holding an unresponsive little girl. Terry recognized the girl as Kennedy Corrigan, his neighbour Connie Corrigan’s two-year-old daughter. Turpin, clad only in boxer shorts and a t-shirt, told Terry that Kennedy had slipped and fallen in the tub and asked if he could drive them to the hospital. Terry called 911 and first responders took Kennedy to Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Kennedy was found to have suffered severe brain damage and was taken by medivac flight to Halifax. She was removed from life support on April 9, having never regained consciousness.1
At the time of Kennedy’s fatal injury, Turpin and his daughter Chloe, also two years old, had been staying at his girlfriend’s home in Central Blissville, New Brunswick. Turpin and Chloe were visiting from Eel River Bar First Nation in northern New Brunswick, where the two made their home and Turpin was part of an award-winning fastball team, to celebrate Kennedy’s second birthday the previous week. To the knowledge of her doctor and caregivers, Kennedy had been in good health. She had, however, fallen while playing the previous week, but had soon seemed unaffected except for some tenderness to the back of her head. She had also been vomiting on the night of April 1. At Chalmers Hospital, Turpin attempted to explain—though he was so upset as to be almost incoherent—that while looking after both little girls, he had decided to give them a bath. Chloe had then run out of the room “and, as he turned, he saw Kennedy falling and hitting the back of her head in the tub.”2
On April 3, Turpin was pulled over for speeding in Oromocto, New Brunswick. He told the officer that “he absolutely had to get to Halifax,” where Kennedy had been transferred, and explained that she had fallen in the bathtub and hit her head.3 Turpin was arrested when the officer confirmed his identity and learned that he had outstanding warrants for minor criminal justice matters (failing to pay fines and to attend a court appearance). However, he was released on compassionate grounds once police had called Corrigan to verify his explanation. Upon his arrival in Halifax, police questioned Turpin at the RCMP detachment. As the New Brunswick Court of Appeal would later observe, “Turpin maintained [that] he had already related what had happened: she had fallen. During persistent grilling by the police, he repeatedly said he wanted to get back to the hospital.”4
At one point after the Halifax interview, Turpin expressed his concern to Corrigan that the police were “going to pin this on [him].”5 Though it was “difficult for him to relive” this event by discussing it in detail, Turpin reiterated that Kennedy had simply fallen in the tub.6
An autopsy was performed after Kennedy’s death, which confirmed that her cause of death was a head injury but found that the precise manner of death could not be ascertained.7 Turpin was interviewed on two further occasions, each time repeating that Kennedy had fallen. At the second interview, “an overwhelming majority of the time was consumed by the police officer lecturing, offering his own opinions and at times lying to . . . Turpin,” who “did not do much talking. He cried, asked to see his mother whom he understood was coming to the police station, and continuously maintained that Kennedy had slipped in the tub and struck her head.”8
Ultimately, police laid no charges but did not close the file. Two further forensic pathology reports obtained in 2006 were also inconclusive. In 2013, the RCMP’s Historical Homicide Unit reviewed the file materials. Police then obtained an additional export report, which opined that a fall in the bathtub could not account for the two-year-old’s fatal injuries. On June 3, 2015, over eleven years after Kennedy’s death, Turpin was charged with second degree murder.9
In June 2016, Turpin was convicted of second degree murder after a lengthy jury trial, during which the Crown had called 12 expert witnesses with respect to the cause of Kennedy’s death. The jury, which did not appear to include any Indigenous persons, deliberated for 11.5 hours over a two-day period before reaching the guilty verdict.10 Turpin was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole eligibility for 10 years (though the Crown had requested no parole eligibility for 14-16 years).11
Turpin appealed his conviction to the New Brunswick Court of Appeal. He was released on bail pending the appeal court’s decision on December 14, 2017.12
A five-member panel of the New Brunswick Court of Appeal overturned Turpin’s second degree murder conviction on October 31, 2019. The court concluded that the trial judge had erred by allowing the prosecution to call 12 expert opinions without justification for such a large number. The court expressed concern that rather than “assist[ing] the jury in its fact-finding mission”, calling numerous experts was more likely to have “confuse[d] and confound[ed] them”, leading to jurors’ becoming “overwhelmed by the evidence as opposed to keeping an open mind and objectively assess[ing] . . . [its] worth.”13 The court found that the jury’s verdict was unreasonable because the evidence did not support the conclusion that Turpin had intended to kill or grievously injure Kennedy. However, the court found that there was sufficient evidence to justify a new trial on the manslaughter charge, and so ordered that he stand trial again.14
Turpin’s retrial commenced on March 8, 2021, before a judge sitting without a jury. The Crown called its evidence until March 29, and the court again heard from forensic pathology expert witnesses regarding Kennedy’s cause of death. The experts could not conclusively determine the sequence of events that led to her fatal injuries. However, the evidence did not support the prosecution’s theory that Turpin caused her death. A prominent Crown expert testified that she could not rule out falling in the bathtub as Kennedy’s cause of death. She stated that a bathtub fall could have been fatal in concert with Kennedy’s previous fall and vomiting, both of which could have exacerbated the seriousness of that injury.15
On March 31, 2021, the prosecutor announced that the Crown would stay the proceedings against Turpin, meaning that it would not proceed with the manslaughter prosecution. In a press release issued the following day, the Crown stated that there was no longer a reasonable prospect of conviction against Turpin, whose trial therefore ought not continue.16
Turpin’s lawyer, Nathan Gorham, stated that he was pleased with this outcome but would have preferred a not guilty verdict, since he felt that “the public and all parties involved could've benefited from a final determination of the case in terms of an acquittal.”17 He added that Turpin had not only gone through a series of “traumatic events . . . but then he went through a process. He was jailed based on flaws in evidence.”18