No appeal for woman convicted of starving grandson

TORONTO - The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear an appeal from a Toronto woman convicted in the starving death of her five-year-old grandson.

Elva Bottineau filed the appeal after Ontario's highest court upheld her second-degree murder conviction in the death of Jeffrey Baldwin.

The Ontario Court of Appeal last year also dismissed a separate appeal from Bottineau's longtime common-law partner, Norman Kidman, who was also found guilty of second-degree murder.

Bottineau and Kidman were convicted in 2006 and sentenced to life in prison with no parole for 22 and 20 years, respectively.

Jeffrey weighed only 21 pounds and was covered in sores when he died in November 2002 from complications due to chronic starvation.

Bottineau's lawyer had argued her IQ of 69 -- borderline mental retardation -- prevented her from understanding that malnutrition was likely to kill the boy.

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  Five-year-old Jeffrey Baldwin died in November 2002 from complications from chronic starvation. He weighed about the same as when he was 15 months old -- 21 pounds.

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  Elva Bottineau, who was convicted of second-degree murder in the starvation death of her grandson Jeffrey Baldwin, is seen in this undated photo.