APPEAL REJECTED

Criminal negligence case

One of four adults whose botched drug-making operation ended in the fiery
death of a Calgary toddler has lost his conviction appeal.

The Alberta Court of Appeal yesterday ruled Paul John Rody, 32, was guilty
of criminal negligence in the April 12, 1995, death of two-year-old Krissy
Thurston.

The three-member court rejected suggestions by defence lawyer Balfour Der
that his client could not have foreseen the potential for harm the girl
faced.

"The appellant failed to direct his mind to the risk that a reasonable
person would have seen," Justice Ronald Berger said, in giving the court's
unanimous decision.

Berger said trial judge Robert Fraser was correct in finding Rody "was
criminally negligent ... in all of the circumstances to have embarked upon
this dangerous exercise."

Rody was convicted in Court of Queen's Bench, along with the dead girl's
father and another acquaintance, Arlene Derksen.

The trio was found responsible for causing the girl's death during a blaze
in Thurston's home in the southeast neighbourhood of Penbrooke Meadows.

A fourth adult, Terry Lerat, pleaded guilty earlier.

The four were involved in cooking isopropyl alcohol over an open flame in a
bid to cull weed oil from marijuana.

The flammable liquid was being heated on a stove inside a trailer in
Thurston's back yard when it caught fire, engulfing the trailer and a car
parked nearby.

As Rody and Thurston battled the trailer blaze, they were unaware Krissy was
trapped inside the car.

Rody is still serving his two years less a day community sentence.

Thurston got a year in jail, while Derksen and Lerat were also handed
community terms.

None of the other convictions was appealed.

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst