Warning: this story contains details some readers may find disturbing.
David Michael Moss, the man who brutally murdered seven-year-old Bella Rose Desrosiers as her mother tucked her into bed, will have to serve 15 years of his life sentence before he can apply for parole.
People wept quietly in an Edmonton courtroom Friday as Court of King’s Bench Justice Steven Mandziuk sentenced Moss, recounting a crime he called “horrific, gruesome and prolonged.”
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He stressed that even if Moss becomes eligible for parole, there is no guarantee he will ever be released.
“This was a shocking, horrific and sickening crime that scarred many people in our community and destroyed the lives of Bella’s family,” Mandziuk said. “A strong response is warranted. That response is reflected in the life sentence imposed on the offender.
Moss, 38, sat silently in the prisoner’s box wearing orange and black correctional coveralls. He spent the hearing with his head bowed and his hands folded.
Mandziuk convicted Moss in April 2023 of second-degree murder, rejecting the one-time tattoo artist’s claim that a brain injury suffered at age 18 caused the psychosis he experienced when he attacked Bella Rose with a pair of scissors.
Moss asked to be found not criminally responsible, which would have seen him confined to a mental hospital rather than prison. Mandziuk found it more likely Moss’s psychosis was caused by drug use. He noted Moss ramped up his marijuana consumption at the beginning of the pandemic but abruptly quit five days before the May 18, 2020, killing.
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While Moss was not intoxicated at the time of the murder, the psychosis nevertheless had “cannabis-related causes” including “use, intoxication (and) withdrawal,” the judge said.
Moss — who grew up in a family that practised “New Age” spiritual beliefs — said he was experiencing an “awakening” just before the killing.
“He believed that he crossed from the physical world to the spiritual world,” Mandziuk wrote. “The physical world was not real. It was like an illusion.”
The psychosis made him believe Bella Rose’s father, who had recently died by suicide, wanted Moss to kill her.
“Mr. Moss had to hurt people to help with their ascension or to help them attain a higher level of spirituality.”
Moss’s crime, committed in the early days of COVID-19 restrictions, shocked Edmontonians. Bella Rose was a bright, artistic girl known for running charity lemonade stands for the Stollery Children’s Hospital with her little sister, Lily.
After her father’s death, Bella Rose also began raising money and awareness for mental health initiatives.
In a victim impact statement read during Moss’s sentencing hearing, Melissa Francis said it was a privilege to be the little girl’s mom.
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”(She had) a beautiful love that could light up any room,” she said through tears.
After Bella Rose’s murder, it emerged that Moss had been assessed a few hours prior by a police/AHS mental health team, which found no grounds to detain him under the Mental Health Act. The assessment came after Moss told his wife he was either going to kill himself “or go to jail for a very long time for murdering her.”
Francis — a high-school acquaintance who reconnected with Moss a year before the killing — agreed to take Moss to hospital and briefly brought him to her home.
As Francis tucked the girls into bed, Moss appeared in his underwear and attacked Bella Rose with a pair of scissors. Francis tried to fight him off, but he managed to repeatedly slash Bella’s throat before dragging her downstairs, where the attack continued.
Moss remained at the home until his arrest. He made several unsolicited comments to police, telling them: “Do you know why I did it? ‘Cause I f—ing liked it.” He continued to display psychotic behaviour while in custody — attempting to choke and suffocate himself and bashing his head against the bed in his cell.
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“Mr. Moss also attempted to remove his teeth,” Mandziuk wrote. “At trial, Mr. Moss explained that he did this because his teeth were keeping him from ascending.”
Second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no parole for 10 to 25 years. Sentencing in Moss’ case was delayed for more than a year after he fired his lawyer. There were also delays in the preparation of pre-sentence reports.
Crown prosecutor Shivani Naidu-Barrett argued Moss should serve 20 to 22 years before being allowed to apply for parole. Defence lawyer Andrea Urquhart asked for 13 years.
Mandziuk said the gratuitous violence Moss inflicted on Bella Rose — a defenceless child in her own home — demanded a parole ineligibility period above the 10-year minimum.
“The offender’s actions required a level of planning with multiple opportunities for reconsideration,” he said. “He made a decision to kill Bella and sought out a weapon in an unfamiliar home … he did not relent until Bella was dead.”
Moss’s “moral blameworthiness,” however, was lessened by his psychosis. Mandziuk noted there was “some connection” between Moss’s underlying mental health conditions and his cannabis use, noting Moss obtained a medical marijuana licence to treat the anxiety he experienced after his brain injury.
He noted that while Moss had a history of paranoia when using cannabis, he had never been before been violent or psychotic. This put him in a different category from those who know drugs make them violent, but use anyway.
Mandziuk also found aspects of Moss’s Indigenous background mitigating, noting the law requires him to consider how systemic factors that lead to higher rates of substance use, violence and suicide among Indigenous people might contribute to a person’s criminal behaviour. Court heard Moss is Métis and had a grandparent who attended residential schools, which the court linked to abuse and violence Moss suffered as a child.
Mandziuk also accepted Moss feels genuine remorse for his actions.
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“He prays day and night and tries to make sense of what happened. (He) also stated that although he has lost everyone, nothing can compare to the devastation he has caused.”
Outside court, Francis said she hoped for a longer parole ineligibility period. However, her focus was on remembering her daughter and her legacy of helping others.
The family has founded a support group for relatives of homicide victims, called Butterfly Hearts, which is hosting a retreat next month. “There’s not enough homicide supports out there,” she said.
Francis said she will never feel closure about her daughter’s death. However, she was relieved that after many delays, the trial is behind her.
“It’s been really hard to grieve her, so I’m just looking forward to giving space to that grief now that everything’s over,” she said.
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