‘I did not kill Sara’: defence wraps up in trial
Double-murder suspect accused of fabricating story
Double-murder suspect Edward Downey denies that he made up a story about a drug dealer, who he says murdered Sara Baillie and her five-year-old daughter, Taliyah Marsman.
Under cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Carla MacPhail on Thursday, Downey insisted Baillie and Taliyah were alive when he left their Panorama Hills residence the morning of July 11, 2016.
But MacPhail suggested Downey didn’t want to go back to Baillie’s home that afternoon, when he drove his worried girlfriend to the basement suite, because he knew what was inside.
Downey earlier said the woman, who can only be identified as A.B., dropped off him and her son at a park because she didn’t want the boy to see the police presence outside Baillie’s home.
But MacPhail suggested Downey also wanted to avoid going there because he knew about the grisly scene inside Taliyah’s bedroom closet.
“You also did not want to go near Sara Baillie’s residence at that time, I suggest, Mr. Downey,” the prosecutor said.
“It wouldn’t have mattered if I went there or not,” Downey said.
“Well, in fact, you did not want to go there because you knew what was in the closet of Taliyah’s bedroom, isn’t that right?” she said. “No, that’s not right.” “That Sara Baillie was in there dead and stuffed in a laundry hamper in Taliyah’s closet.” “I wouldn’t know that,” he said. “You did know that because you’re the one that put her there, aren’t you?” the prosecutor charged.
“I wouldn’t know that and I didn’t put her there.”
Downey, 48, faces two charges of first-degree murder in the slayings of Baillie and Taliyah.
MacPhail noted Downey never got the drug dealer’s contact information, despite the fact he was able to produce four kilos of cocaine for sale that morning.
“The reason Terrance is not in those contacts (in your phone) is because he does not exist, isn’t that right, Mr. Downey?” MacPhail said.
“Why wouldn’ t he exist ?” Downey replied.
She also suggested a five-minute gap in a text conversation he was having with a woman he was trying to woo that same afternoon was because Downey was doing something else.
“The reason there’s a five-minute gap in that conversation is because you were busy,” the prosecutor said.
“You were busy dumping Taliyah Marsman in the bushes, weren’t you?”
“I didn’t dump Taliyah Marsman in no bushes,” he said.
MacPhail also said Downey fabricated a claim to A.B. he drove by the Peter Lougheed Centre looking for Baillie’s vehicle because he’d already killed her.
“I did not kill Sara,” Downey said. “You killed her on the morning of July 11, 2016, sometime between 9 and 10 a.m.,” MacPhail said.
“I did not kill Sara,” he repeated. Jurors will hear final arguments from Crown and defence lawyers on Monday.