Accused says death was accidental, not connected to gang

Shaylin Sutherland-kayseas says she accidentally shot Dylan Phillips while high on crystal methamphetamine, and “boasted” about it boosting her rank in the Terror Squad street gang because of wishful thinking.

Testifying in her own defence at her first-degree murder trial in Saskatoon, the 20-year-old said any inconsistencies between her testimony and what she told police during her 2017 confession was to prevent others from going down for what she did.

Sutherland-kayseas admitted going to Phillips’s home in the 1400 block of Avenue G North on Oct. 14, 2016, because she was told “a guy” who lived there had drugs. She said she didn’t know him and wasn’t sent there on behalf of the Terror Squad, a gang of which she admitted being a member for five or six years.

She brought a gun with her as a “prop,” but didn’t know it was loaded until she pulled the trigger when Phillips grabbed the firearm, she told court. During her police interview, Sutherland-kayseas said she loaded the gun in her car.

On the stand, she testified that from what she can recall, someone opened the door and a man tried to attack her and grab her gun. She was surprised, lost her grip and pulled the trigger, she said.

She told her lawyer she did not intend to kill Phillips, who court heard wasn’t a gang member.

A fiery cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Melodi Kujawa followed. She suggested to Sutherland-kayseas that her intoxication claim is directly related to a desired manslaughter conviction.

“I was always high ,” retorted.

To elevate the charge from second-degree to first-degree murder, the Crown must prove Sutherland kay seas went to rob Phillips at the direction of, for the benefit of or in association with a criminal organization.

Sutherland-kayseas testified the robbery had nothing to do with the gang and that she lived her own life beyond the Terror Squad.

Kujawa said she would have to know which gang members could give beatings, and how the gang was structured — things she referenced in her recorded phone calls. Stammering, the accused often replied, “I really don’t know.”

“Just because I’m a part of it doesn’t mean I know everything that’s going on,” she said.

The accused also denied being sent on a “mission” that allowed her to become a “higher up.” She said she told her sister — in a recorded call from jail that was played in court — that she was on “city council now” because “kids boast when they want to do stuff.”

Sutherland-kayseas testified she got her “TS” tattoo when she was 15. She said it doesn’t mean she is a high-ranking member, even though a Terror Squad expert testified on Tuesday that the tattoo signifies just that.

The defence closed its case on Wednesday without calling a second witness, a teen Terror Squad member sentenced for manslaughter in connection with Phillips’s death. He was brought to court, but defence lawyer Jessie Buydens did not say why she changed her mind about putting him on the stand.

During Sutherland-kayseas’s cross-examination, court heard she told the teen he didn’t have to testify when they crossed paths in the courthouse Wednesday morning. Sutherland-kayseas said she didn’t want him to feel obligated to say anything.

She told court several times that the gang is her family, that her two co-accused gang members had no idea she was going to rob Phillips and that she is the only one to blame for the shooting.

On Monday, her other co-accused, Trent Raymond Southwind, refused to testify as a Crown witness.

Closing arguments are scheduled for Friday.

Just because I’m a part of it doesn’t mean I know everything that’s going on.