Woman recalls being ‘fearful’ of man accused of killing her daughter

REGINA Carla Yawney remembers walking into her daughter Celeste’s Regina home shortly after the 33-year-old woman was killed.

Carla told a Regina Court of Queen’s Bench jury she didn’t go far inside the house with the police, but it was far enough to see holes in the wall, spattered blood and damage — “a lot of damage.”

“The whole house was, in my opinion, destroyed,” she told the court.

Carla was the first witness called by the Crown at the trial for Celeste’s then-boyfriend, Duran Justin Redwood. The 30 year old faces a second-degree murder charge, accused of beating Celeste to death on the morning of May 24, 2015.

During often-emotional testimony, Carla described Celeste as a vivacious, happy-go-lucky and compassionate woman.

“She had the capacity to love unconditionally, and as a result of that she trusted people — sometimes when she should not have trusted people,” she said.

Carla suggested one of those people was Redwood, whom Celeste had started seeing a little over a year prior to her death.

She said her daughter struggled at times with drinking, a problem that compounded in May of 2014 when her father, Carla’s husband, died suddenly following a surgery. The jury heard Celeste distanced herself from her family and sought to keep her mother away from her home on Ingersoll Crescent.

Carla said she met Redwood a handful of times and found him quiet and withdrawn, adding her instincts suggested something was off.

“We were not happy with him at all …,” she testified. “I was fearful and was concerned.”

Carla said she last saw her daughter on May 23, 2015. One of Celeste’s two sons had spent the night at Carla’s and the two went to meet Celeste at a Walmart.

“She seemed distraught, withdrawn,” Carla said, adding her daughter uncharacteristically snapped at her son.

Celeste had been fixing up her house with the intent of selling it and leaving Regina — “to be safe,” Carla said. She choked back tears as she recalled waking up the following morning to see Celeste had tried to call her at approximately 1 a.m.

“I still feel bad to this day … I didn’t hear it ring,” she said.

When attempts to reach Celeste went unanswered, Carla drove to her daughter’s house to find it cordoned off by police tape. She would learn her daughter had been the victim of a homicide. By then, Redwood was already in custody.

Court heard from several other witnesses — including the woman with whom Redwood has three children — about an unexpected visit he paid to their home on the morning of May 24.

Claudette Kennedy and her daughters, Amber Kennedy and Ashly Larose (Redwood’s former partner), described the man turning up with blood on his pants and the startling news he’d found his girlfriend dead in her bathtub.

During roughly parallel testimony, they said they asked him what had happened and were told he

She had the capacity to love unconditionally, and as a result of that, she trusted people.

didn’t know. When asked whether he had killed her, he was said to have responded, “That’s the only explanation.”

The women each noted it seemed as if he’d recently used alcohol or drugs and was coming out of it.

When Redwood started to walk away, Claudette said, she and her daughters got into a car and went after him. Redwood got in and they drove him to the police station where he was arrested. During the ride, the women each said, an emotional Redwood repeatedly punched himself in the head. Larose testified Redwood said he’d been blacked out that night.

According to an agreed statement of facts read in court on Wednesday, Redwood acknowledges having been the one to cause Celeste’s fatal injuries. The question, the Crown told jurors earlier this week, will be whether he had the intent necessary for a murder conviction.

The jury was also told Redwood had offered to plead to manslaughter, but that the Crown rejected the plea to the lesser charge.