Oluwatosin Oluwafemi appears in court accused of murdering daughter
Meghan Grant | CBC News | Posted: December 10, 2015 9:34 PM | Last Updated: December 10, 2015
Oluwafemi is originally from Nigeria. He has family in Ontario.
A Calgary father who is accused of murdering his four-year-old daughter retained a lawyer a year ago after police initially interviewed him following her death.
Oluwatosin Oluwafemi, 39, made a brief court appearance Thursday after being charged with second-degree murder on Wednesday.
"It's an upsetting, sad circumstance," said veteran defence lawyer, Alan Hepner.
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Olive Rebekah Oluwafemi, 4, died in Dec. 2014 from blunt force injuries. Her death was deemed a homicide by the medical examiner.
Both parents — who police say have been uncooperative from the beginning — told police the girl had fallen down the stairs.
Police also said the child's body showed other non-fatal injuries that were several weeks old.
Originally from Nigeria, Oluwafemi, his wife and their daughter had been living in Calgary where he worked as an engineer in the oil and gas business for about two years when Olive died.
Weeks later, her parents moved to Ontario. That's where Oluwafemi was arrested earlier this week before being flown back to Calgary to face his charge.
"There's no shocks anymore in the system," said Hepner of the delay in laying charges. "There was the death of a little girl so you always expected that something might happen."
The matter was put over today so that Hepner can get disclosure from the prosecution. He hasn't looked at the autopsy reports yet.
Hepner hasn't ruled out applying for bail. Oluwafemi will be back in court on Jan. 5.