Syringes 'everywhere' around home where Winnipeg toddler died, court told

The mother of a toddler who died of fentanyl intoxication is now awaiting sentencing after admitting she accidentally killed her child.

Sabrina Boulette wept as she told Manitoba provincial court Judge Dale Harvey she was sorry during a hearing Friday, two months after she pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of her 23-month-old daughter, Hanna Boulette.

Emergency services went to Boulette's home on Stella Avenue in Winnipeg in March 2023, after a man alerted 911 the girl was unresponsive.

The woman and the child's father were arrested nearly a year later, after an autopsy found Hanna died from "high levels of fentanyl intoxication."

Police said it took hours for the parents to call emergency services, even though they knew the child may have been exposed to fentanyl.

Garry Daniel Adrian Bruce, Boulette's co-accused and Hanna's father, is set to stand trial next month.

Crown prosecutor Jocelyne Ritchot said Friday Boulette withheld critical information from first responders, denying there were any drugs in the house.

Ritchot said the woman's story kept changing, and that she had initially told investigators the parents had left the child under the care of another person at the time.

"It was a very elaborate story she was telling, but it was a story," Ritchot said.

Boulette eventually told police she started getting worried about what had happened to Hanna after she saw two drug needles on the table, but said she didn't call 911 because she feared Child and Family Services would take the child, Ritchot said.

Syringes next to Dora toy: prosecutor

The prosecutor also went over several photos taken at Boulette's apartment suite she said showed "tourniquets, syringes, gloves scattered everywhere."

"Most … I would say would be very accessible for a curious, young child," she said.

Some areas were littered with piles of clothes, garbage and dog feces, and were difficult to walk through because of the clutter, Ritchot said.

She described one photo in particular as "the most salient, because right next to what looks like a Dora the Explorer toy, just off the left side of it, you can see there's a bunch of syringes there," she said.

Another photo showed a child's snowsuit with a syringe on top of it.

The suite's bathroom and kitchen were also covered in garbage and filth, Ritchot said. A syringe loaded with fentanyl was found on a diaper box by the bathroom sink, along with some used diapers.

The Crown is asking for a four-year sentence for Boulette, minus time already served.

Ritchot argued the woman has been trying to minimize her responsibility for the death throughout, including during a pre-sentencing report interview, in which she still continued to say untruthful things.

Pam Smith, Boulette's lawyer, said her client has been in "denial," as any parent would be.

"It's very hard to say, 'I caused my child's death,'" she said.

Mother 'was a victim as well': lawyer

Smith asked for a two-year sentence, based on the fact the drugs belonged to Boulette's partner.

She also pointed to her client's background, saying Boulette "was a victim as well."

Boulette did not have the strength to escape a toxic relationship with a drug user, and had struggled herself with addictions in the past, said Smith.

She "wasn't really equipped for being a model mother" because of personal and intergenerational trauma," the lawyer argued.

"She was afraid of CFS because they had taken children from her, and she was a ward of CFS and wasn't treated well.

"It was very hard for her to reach out for help. But when you look at the trauma she went through, and the horrible relationship she had been through, she was just trying to do her best," said Smith.

Boulette told the judge she doesn't want her other children to see her go to jail.

"I have so much guilt.… It's been very hard for me to deal with this," she said.

"I would suspect it would be for anyone in your situation," said Judge Harvey.

He reserved his decision.