CALGARY — The Crown wants a woman who drugged her nine-year-old daughter and then set fire to the truck the girl was in to spend 20 years in prison before she is eligible for parole.
Laura Coward, who is 50, pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder in the death of Amber Lucius and is facing a life sentence.
The Crown told Coward's sentencing hearing that she won't be eligible for parole for at least 10 years, but the judge can increase that.
Amber's father and Coward's brother are expected to give victim impact statements at the hearing.
Amber was reported missing Aug. 31, 2014, and her mother was arrested two days later near the town of Sundre in west-central Alberta.
She was standing outside a burned vehicle in which her daughter's body was discovered.
Court heard that Coward had given Amber a toxic but non-lethal dose of a prescription sleeping medication.
"The accused admits that sometime later she woke up," prosecutor Mac Vomberg earlier told court. "She checked Amber and mistakenly thought she had died. The accused panicked."
Vomberg said Coward filled the truck — with Amber unconscious in it — with paper and plastic totes and set it on fire with a propane torch before closing the door.
An autopsy suggested the girl died of a combination of hypothermia, smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide toxicity, the prosecutor said.
