Diverging accounts at trial for accused in deaths of Calgary mother, daughter

MacPhail said it was an unremarkable start to the day for the mother and daughter — aside from the pair running late for work and daycare, respectively.

“But then something happened,” she said. “Something happened and they never made it out of their residence.”

The Crown’s theory is that Downey blamed Baillie for his breakup with her best friend, and for his former girlfriend declining to work as an escort. MacPhail said Downey relied on his ex-girlfriend for money, a place to live and a vehicle.

“He held a bitter hatred toward Sara Baillie,” MacPhail said.

Both mother and daughter were alive and well at 9:04 a.m., when Baillie texted to cancel a tanning appointment, MacPhail told jurors.

She said the Crown believes Baillie, dressed in her uniform for her waitress job, and her daughter were on their way out of their basement apartment when they were intercepted by an “unexpected and unwelcome” Downey.

Court has already heard that Baillie’s body was found stuffed in a laundry hamper in her daughter’s closet that evening. Two of Downey’s partial fingerprints were found on duct tape that had been wrapped around Baillie’s face.

The Crown argues Downey took Taliyah around 10:30 a.m. and that her mother must have been dead by then because she would never have let Downey take her.

The girl’s remains were found three days later in some bushes just east of Calgary.

Both victims died by asphyxiation.

Defence lawyer Gavin Wolch said in his closing submissions the alleged motive “amounts to nothing” and there was no obvious animosity when Baillie and Downey saw each other briefly at a gathering two days before she was found dead.

The trial has heard Downey’s then-girlfriend sent a text the next day telling him to pack his bags. Wolch argued the pair had long had a turbulent relationship, that Downey had started looking elsewhere and that he could make fast money other ways, such as dealing drugs.

“When he went to bed that night, he did not feel like his life was falling apart,” Wolch said.

Downey testified that the day Baillie was found dead, he met two other men — one he called Terrance and a friend of Terrance’s — at Baillie’s apartment for a drug deal, but Downey had to get money from home.

The Crown has told jurors Downey invented the two men. MacPhail said it’s incredulous the drug dealers with four kilograms of cocaine would have waited hours for Downey to fetch cash for just an ounce of it.

Downey told court before he left for home, the man identified as Terrance was arguing with Baillie and asked for tape. He said he ripped some off of a roll the friend chucked over, not thinking much of the request.

Wolch noted DNA from three male sources was found on the tape, but MacPhail urged jurors to disregard that evidence because anyone could have touched the roll throughout its history.

MacPhail called Downey’s version of events “patently absurd,” “inconsistent with common sense” and full of “far-fetched co-incidences.”

Wolch said everyone agrees what happened was terrible.

“But we are asking you not to compound that tragedy by blaming Mr. Downey for something he didn’t do.”

Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Diverging accounts at trial for accused in deaths of Calgary mother, daughter

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