SHOCKING TESTIMONY
Accused tried to force ex-gal pal into sex trade, court hears
CALGARY — Edward Downey physically assaulted his ex-girlfriend and tried to get her into the escort industry where “he made his money,” his double-murder trial heard Tuesday.
The former girlfriend, who can only be identified by the initials A.B., was also the best friend of slain Calgary mom Sara Baillie and considered the victim and her murdered daughter like family.
And she testified Baillie once confided to her a former boyfriend tried to get her into the sex trade as well, but she refused.
The ex-beau, who A.B. knew as E.J., had an on-again, off-again relationship with Baillie which had ended by the date of her death in July 2016.
Downey, 46, is charged with first-degree murder in the July 11 slaying of Baillie and 5-year-old Taliyah Marsman, whose body was found three days later in some shrubs east of Calgary.
According to Crown prosecutor Carla MacPhail in her opening address to jurors, both victims died of asphyxiation.
In that same opening, MacPhail referred to texts between Downey and E.J. that showed the accused was angry at Baillie.
A.B. said E.J. lived in Vancouver and Baillie occasionally discussed their on and off dating.
“He asked her to work (in the sex trade),” A.B. said, adding that Baillie refused.
Downey asked the witness to also become an escort and she reluctantly took an ad out online and even went on a date when the two of them went to Edmonton.
Downey also had an ex-girlfriend who worked in the sex trade, she testified.
“That’s how he made his money,” A.B. said.
The witness said during her twoyear relationship with Downey that he never held a job and she paid the mortgage on their northeast Calgary townhouse and their bills, including car payments on the grey Dodge Charger she let him drive.
Part of A.B.’s evidence was to identify photos of the car, which had four tinted windows and a sun roof.
In her opening, MacPhail said witnesses saw a man near Baillie’s home get out of her white Ford Fusion and take a little girl to a grey car with tinted windows.
The prosecutor suggested Taliyah was slain because she could identify her mother’s killer.
The trial continues.