A prosecutor says the accused in a murder trial made up two other men he says were with him at a woman’s home the day she was found dead and her daughter disappeared.
Edward Downey, 48, is charged with first-degree murder in the July 2016 deaths of Sara Baillie and five-year-old Taliyah Marsman.
“You killed Sara because you hated her,” prosecutor Carla MacPhail told Downey on Thursday.
“No, I did not,” Downey replied.
“You killed Taliyah because she knew you and she could tell,” MacPhail said.
“I did not,” he replied.
Downey testified he met two other men – one he calls Terrance and Terrance’s friend – in Baillie’s apartment to buy cocaine. He said she and Terrance got into an argument before Downey left to get money from home.
MacPhail quizzed Downey on why he didn’t have contacts in his phone for the drug-dealing duo, even though he had plenty of other numbers.
“It seems like the guy with access to four kilograms of cocaine is someone you would have wanted to add to your contact list,” MacPhail said.
“Kind of,” Downey replied.
“The reason Terrance is not in your contacts is that he does not exist,” MacPhail said.
Downey said that wasn’t true.
Downey told court the man identified as Terrance asked for tape while arguing with Baillie in her bedroom. Downey said he ripped off a piece and didn’t think much of the request.
The jury has already heard evidence that two of Downey’s partial fingerprints were found on duct tape that had been wrapped around Baillie’s face and neck.
The trial has heard that both Baillie and Taliyah died by asphyxiation.
MacPhail recounted in graphic detail the Crown’s theory of how Downey went to Baillie’s house, confined and strangled her before removing Taliyah, killing her and dumping her body east of the city. Loved ones wept as each Crown assertion was met with a denial from Downey.
The Crown’s theory is Downey blamed Baillie for his relationship ending and for his former girlfriend – Baillie’s best friend – declining to work as an escort.
Court heard the ex-girlfriend asked Downey to check hospitals on July 11, 2016, when she and other loved ones became concerned because they couldn’t contact Baillie. He testified he drove by the hospital but didn’t go in.
That’s because Downey already knew she was dead, MacPhail suggested.
“You knew she was dead because you killed her, Mr. Downey,” the prosecutor said.
“I did not kill Sara,” he replied.
MacPhail asked Downey why he declined to join his then-girlfriend when she went to Baillie’s house later that afternoon.
“It wouldn’t have mattered if I went there or not,” he said.
The prosecutor suggested it was because he already knew the 34-year-old single mother was dead, stuffed in a laundry hamper in her daughter’s closet.
“You do know that because you’re the one who put her there,” MacPhail said.
“I did not know that and I did not put her there,” he replied.
Taliyah was gone when Baillie was found dead. The girl’s remains were found three days later in some bushes just east of Calgary. The trial heard police used pings from Downey’s phone to zero in on the location.
MacPhail grilled Downey about a five-minute gap in a flirtatious text exchange between him and another woman the day Baillie died.
“You were busy dumping Taliyah Marsman in the bushes, weren’t you?” she asked.
“I didn’t dump Taliyah Marsman in the bushes,” he replied.
Downey was the defence’s only witness.
Both sides have finished presenting evidence. Closing arguments are scheduled for Monday and the jury is expected to begin deliberating Wednesday.