Edmonton couple sentenced to four years for leaving senior to die on floor

An Edmonton-area couple was sentenced to four years in prison Tuesday for waiting more than a week to call 911 after a senior fell in their home and died from infection.

Dianne Simmons, 76, fell in the rural home shared with her daughter June Briggs and Briggs' common-law husband Richard McElroy. Simmons died in hospital on June 8 of multi-organ failure caused by sepsis — the infection developed from wounds that became infected while she lay in her own waste for seven to 10 days.

Neither Briggs nor McElroy called for help until after Simmons fell unconscious. Court heard that Briggs and McElroy were convicted of failing to provide the necessaries of life and criminal negligence in Simmons' death.

Defence lawyers argued the pair had limited intellectual capacity and deserved leniency, proposing house arrest instead. Justice Kelsey Becker Brookes rejected that argument. She imposed the Crown's recommended four-year sentence, stating: "What was expected of them was not perfection, but basic human decency, and this was not beyond their abilities."

A member of Simmons' family told the court they believed the four-year sentence was adequate.