When paramedic Mike Sugimoto touched Linda Stupple’s wrist, she opened her eyes and whispered “Help.”
The Crown recounted the incident Friday at the sentencing hearing for Linda’s husband, Mark Stupple, who has pleaded guilty to failing to provide the necessities of life for his wife, thereby endangering her life.
Victoria provincial court Judge Adrian Brooks called Stupple’s behaviour “callous” and sentenced him to 18 months in jail, followed by two years’ probation. He ordered Mark Stupple not to contact Linda Stupple or her family, not to enter into any relationship where he shares a home with a dependent person and to take counselling.
The couple married in 1987. Linda Stupple worked as a cashier and hairdresser until she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2009. Mark Stupple, 60, was a food demonstrator at a big-box store.
Prosecutor Laura Ford told the court that at 8:50 p.m. on Sept. 27, 2013, Mark Stupple called 911 and said his wife had been in pain for a couple of days, was not moving much and had developed bed sores from lying “in the wrong spot too long.”
Saanich firefighters were first to arrive at the home on Tattersall Drive. They found Linda Stupple lying naked on the ground outside the back door. She was on her left side, with a robe draped over her. She was pale, emaciated and had sores all over her body.
Sugimoto, the lead paramedic, thought she might be in cardiac arrest. He asked Mark Stupple what happened. Stupple said his wife had fallen and had been on the floor three or four days. He finally decided she needed help and carried her out of the house, but dropped her where the first responders found her.
When she arrived at Royal Jubilee Hospital, Linda Stupple’s condition was deplorable, said Ford. She was filthy, covered in feces, severely hypothermic, dehydrated, and malnourished, with deep, open pressure sores down to the bone.
An emergency-room nurse told police she’d “never seen anything like that patient in 34 years.”
Dr. Alasdair Polson, a critical-care doctor, testified at the preliminary inquiry that Linda Stupple would have died in 24 to 48 hours without treatment. She was suffering from severe septic shock due to infected pressure wounds. The ulcer on her left knee was eroded down to the bone. Polson said he believed the ulcers “were weeks in the making.”
Linda Stupple spent 21 days in the intensive-care unit, undergoing at least five surgeries, said Ford. She spent almost five months in hospital and now lives in a long-term care facility.
A psychiatric report did not reveal any obvious reason for Mark Stupple’s behaviour, said Ford. The psychiatrist expressed concern about his lack of insight into his actions.
“He has no explanation of what went on,” said defence lawyer Roland Kuczma. “It’s still a mystery as to how it happened.”
The court heard that Linda Stupple had been well enough to visit her family in July 2013, travelling on her own to Washington state. She talked to her mother and sister every Monday night, but the phone calls stopped in early September. Family members left a message on Mark Stupple’s cellphone, then called his mother.
Linda Stupple called her family on Sept. 18, but appeared to be in pain and said she’d call the next week. Her family became increasingly concerned and called Saanich police on Sept. 25.
Brooks found it an aggravating factor that Mark Stupple frustrated his wife’s family’s efforts to get in touch with her, then deceived the police. A constable went to the house several times to see Linda Stupple in person, but no one answered the door. On Sept. 26, Mark Stupple told the officer his wife was fine, which was misleading, Brooks said. “Her condition would have been obviously absolutely desperate.”
Brooks denied a request by the Crown to have photographs sealed that documented Linda Stupple’s injuries. The photographs can be inspected but not reproduced, Brooks ordered.
“For people to understand the sentence, they need to know the seriousness of what we’re talking about,” he said.
