Edmonton dog owner guilty of criminal negligence causing death of 11-year-old boy

EDMONTON — A woman whose two dogs killed an 11-year-old boy at her home showed a “wanton disregard for his life,” a judge said Friday as he found her guilty of criminal negligence causing death.

Alberta Court of King’s Bench Justice Eric Macklin handed down the verdict against Crystal MacDonald, 46, whose two dogs fatally attacked Kache Grist at her Edmonton home on April 1, 2024.

“Throughout her testimony, I generally found the accused to be evasive and defensive whenever her actions were questioned,” Macklin said.

“She consistently attempted to either cast blame elsewhere and minimize her own responsibilities.”

While Macklin was criticizing MacDonald for failing to protect the boy from her two Cane Corsos, her lawyer interrupted to say his client was having a medical episode.

Court later reconvened, and Macklin said MacDonald should have done more to protect the boy from the dogs, which weighed more than 100 pounds and had a history of violence.

Court heard the dogs killed Kache when he was in Edmonton visiting his father for spring break. MacDonald and the boy’s father, Wesley Grist, were roommates at the time. The boy had been living with his mother in British Columbia since November 2023.

MacDonald testified that she repeatedly told Grist not to leave his son alone with the dogs. She had plans to enrol the animals in specific training and wanted to neuter the more aggressive of the two animals.

Before Kache’s death, the dogs had killed two pets and injured three adults, including MacDonald.

Tina Kelepouris testified last week that the dogs attacked her in MacDonald’s backyard less than two months before Kache’s death.

Kelepouris was in hospital for four days with three broken ribs, a collapsed lung and more than a dozen stitches throughout her body.

MacDonald testified that she didn’t approve of Kache staying at her home and tried to get the dogs into a boarding kennel, but they lacked the required vaccinations.

The judge said telling the boy’s father not to leave him alone with the dogs wasn’t enough.

Macklin said there were multiple things she could have done, such as keeping the dogs leashed or chained in the backyard, locking them in their kennels or finding another place for the boy to stay.

“She had that choice. But instead of doing any of these things, she kept her dogs in their untrained and often dangerous state in her house,” he said.

The boy’s father testified that he was in the garage when Kache was killed. He had allowed the boy to go inside to play with a new video game while he finished cleaning up tools.

About 45 minutes later, Grist found his son lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor with the dogs surrounding him.

An autopsy found the child died from bite injuries to the neck. The dogs were later euthanized.

“The most significant cause of Kache’s death was the failure of the accused to take reasonable steps to ensure that Kache was not harmed by the two untrained, dangerous, vicious and unpredictable Cane Corso dogs,” Macklin said.

“(MacDonald) showed a wanton and reckless disregard for his life and safety.”

Outside court, defence lawyer Evan McIntyre said his client was anxious and disappointed after the decision.

“We are certainly going to be assessing our options here once the sentencing is complete in September,” he said.

McIntyre said his client loved Kache “like a nephew” and was put in a difficult situation when the father showed up with the boy at her house. She had previously told Grist that his son couldn’t stay there for spring break.

McIntyre said there’s a tendency in these kinds of cases to look back and say things could have been done differently.

“But that’s not what the criminal law expects of people. The criminal law says to look at the circumstances and ask what is reasonable,” he said.

“We feel that’s one of the errors Justice Macklin made in his decision.”

Crown prosecutor Anders Quist said outside court that he believes justice was done.

He said MacDonald relied on people to follow her house rules, when there was “clear evidence that people weren’t following her directions.”

“But even if her directions had been followed, they would have not been enough,” Quist said.

“There had always been other people present with all the other attacks.”

Kache’s mother, Kendrah Wong, said earlier Friday that she misses her son.

She has been following the trial online from Osoyoos, B.C.

In a Facebook message, she said Kache had asked if she would get him an RV for his 18th birthday so they could travel the world together.

“I agreed, with the most beautiful vision of us driving down the highway with the biggest smiles on our faces, singing to songs we would make up on the fly,” Wong said.

“Kache was such a handsome, generous (and) kind young man.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 22, 2026.

Daniela Germano, The Canadian Press