Verdict on murder expected

A judge is expected to rule today whether the parents of a diabetic boy who died of starvation and lack of treatment are guilty of first-degree murder.

Emil and Rodica Radita have pleaded not guilty in 15-year-old Alexandru’s death.

Alexandru, who was one of eight children, weighed less than 37 pounds when he died in 2013 of complications due to untreated diabetes and starvation.

Alberta's chief medical examiner testified an autopsy showed the teen was severely underweight, covered in ulcers and nearly toothless, and there were several signs the boy had been subjected to neglect and starvation.

Dr. Jeffery Gofton said Alexandru appeared skeletal with thin hair and sunken eyes. He said the boy was wearing a diaper and had very little body fat.

He told court the teen's teeth were in an extreme state of disrepair and it appeared most had rotted down to the root. There was no sign of any dental work.

Defence lawyer Andrea Serink, who represents Rodica Radita, said the couple didn't intend to kill their son, but are culpable for not providing the level of care that he needed.

"The Raditas are guilty of manslaughter, not murder," she said in her final argument.

Crown prosecutor Susan Pepper said any reasonable person would have known lack of treatment would have fatal consequences for Alexandru.

“Really the question is was there an intention to withhold care … leading to certain consequences that they would expect to have occur?” Pepper said in her final remarks.

Witnesses testified that the Raditas refused to accept that their son had diabetes and failed to treat his disease until he was hospitalized near death in British Columbia in 2003.

B.C. social workers apprehended Alexandru after his October 2003 hospital admission and placed him in foster care — where he thrived — for nearly a year before he was returned to his family.

Testimony also indicated that after the family moved to Alberta, he was enrolled in an online school program for one year but never finished. There was no evidence that the boy ever saw a doctor, although he did have an Alberta health insurance number.

The trial heard that the parents’ religious beliefs included not going to doctors. The day the Alexandru died, the family went to church and said that the boy had died, but that God had resurrected him.