Winnipeg stepmother allowed to withdraw guilty plea in toddler's death

A Winnipeg woman who admitted responsibility in the death of her toddler stepson has been allowed to withdraw her guilty plea, after a judge found she wasn't fully informed about the consequences of that decision.

Victoria Reane Thiessen pleaded guilty in 2021 to manslaughter in the death of two-year-old Brett White, after being presented with a possible deal by her previous lawyer that would have seen a joint sentencing recommendation made of two years less a day, a recent decision from Manitoba Provincial Court Associate Chief Judge Tracey Lord said.

Lord she wasn't satisfied that the now 23-year-old Thiessen, who has a cognitive disability, understood that recommendation was just an option the Crown may have considered — not a done deal with prosecutors.

"She was not advised that the joint recommendation was not a firm agreement, but rather a hopeful plan," Lord said in a written decision handed down on Monday.

Thiessen's previous lawyer told her if she was convicted at trial, she would likely be sentenced to five years in a prison outside Manitoba — which made the lesser sentence in a provincial jail attractive, since she was worried about maintaining contact with her kids, the decision noted.

Her current lawyer argued his client's plea was not voluntary, "because she was essentially told if she went to trial she would be convicted" and sentenced to a longer term, the decision said.

Thiessen, then 20, was charged with manslaughter in the toddler's death in April 2020, after the boy was taken to hospital in critical condition with a head injury while in her care in March 2020 and later died. At the time she was the partner of the boy's father, the decision said.

Instead of proceeding to a scheduled preliminary hearing, Thiessen entered a guilty plea in July 2021.

But when she met with Probation Services to have a pre-sentence report prepared, Thiessen denied having committed the offence and the matter was referred back to court in August 2021.

She got a new lawyer and filed an application to withdraw her guilty plea in August 2022, the decision said.

While Thiessen confessed to police she was responsible for the death, she later told court she did not have access to her medication for anxiety and depression and was experiencing suicidal thoughts during the roughly 11-hour interview, the decision said.

"Although she maintained her innocence for many hours, by the end of the interview she told police she was responsible for Brett White's death," Lord wrote.

"She now says what she told the police was not true and it was only said because she thought it would result in her being able to leave."

Lord also wrote she was not satisfied that Thiessen was able to understand the form her lawyer gave her to sign after she said she wanted to plead guilty.