Dad uses lamp cord to try to shock dead toddler back to life
CALGARY — A Calgary man cut an electrical cord and placed the live wires on his baby daughter’s tiny chest in attempt to revive her, a emergency responder testified Tuesday.
Emergency medical technician Ron Werbisky testified that when he arrived at Jonathan Mark Hope’s duplex, he noticed a sliced electrical cord.
Werbisky said Hope told him he cut a lamp cord, rubbed petroleum jelly on 16-month-old Summer’s chest and put the exposed wires on her to try to shock her back to life.
Hope and his wife, Lisa Guerin, are charged with manslaughter and criminal negligence. Toxicology reports found Summer died of methadone overdose.
Hope told police he awoke on April 30, 2006, to find Summer was not breathing. He said he did CPR on the girl, but emergency crews didn’t arrive until around 2 p.m. after a relative of Hope’s called 911.
Paramedic Gary Taylor testified the girl was dead when they arrived. He said Hope told him he didn’t call for assistance because his cordless phone had died.
But Hope also told him he called an aunt to ask for help.
“I asked him why didn’t he call 911 instead and he said the phone died again,” Taylor said.
Hope, who was taking methadone, a liquid opiate, to treat an addiction, also told paramedics that he suspected his daughter had taken Tylenol.
Prosecutors allege Guerin knew her daughter had drank the methadone but did nothing to help.
But her lawyer says Guerin wasn’t home when Summer died and had nothing to do with her daughter’s death.
