Appeal panel upholds convictions in murders of mom and daughter

The man who murdered a Calgary mom and her five-yearold daughter was not the victim of an unfair trial, Alberta's top court ruled Tuesday.

A three-member Alberta Court of Appeal panel rejected arguments by defence lawyer Kelsey Sitar that Edward Downey's convictions should be overturned and a new trial ordered because the trial judge permitted bad character evidence to go to jurors.

Sitar said evidence showing Downey escorted prostitutes for cash and assaulted his former girlfriend was prejudicial to his case and should not have gone before jurors.

“The evidence was speculative at best and probative of nothing,” Sitar said during appeal arguments in January. At trial, the prosecution argued Downey was angry at Calgary mom Sara Baillie for her involvement in breaking up his relationship with his girlfriend, whose identity is subject to a publication ban.

Appeal Crown Christine Rideout argued the evidence was crucial to establish Downey's source of income — his escorting as well as the financial support supplied by his girlfriend — was drying up along with his relationship, and he blamed Baillie for it.

“His relationship is in peril with his main source of income,” Rideout said. She noted the girlfriend texted Downey the night before Baillie and her daughter's murders, telling him “it was time for him to pack his bags.”

Downey was convicted of going to Baillie's northwest Calgary home and strangling her as retribution. Jurors found he went to the Panorama Hills residence the morning of July 11, 2016, with the intention to kill her, or caused her death during the course of an unlawful confinement.

The body of Baillie, 34, was found that afternoon, bound in duct tape and stuffed inside a laundry hamper inside her daughter's bedroom closet. After killing Baillie, Downey kidnapped her daughter, five-year-old Taliyah Marsman, and later strangled her as well to silence her as a potential witness before dumping the girl's body in a stand of trees northeast of the city. Her body was found three days later on a rural property.

Then-court of Queen's Bench Justice Beth Hughes, now a member of the Court of Appeal, sentenced Downey to life in prison with consecutive periods of parole ineligibility of 25 years for each killing. Hughes said that among the multiple aggravating factors warranting consecutive periods of parole ineligibility was the fact Taliyah knew Downey as a family friend.

“Taliyah was taken from her home by a person whom she should have been able to trust,” Hughes said.