Accused said in confession to police he didn’t regret killing, court told

Warning: This story contains graphic details

During a confession that a police investigator called “probably the most bizarre and incredible thing I’ve heard,” Tyler William Robert Hurd said he doesn’t regret killing the woman who took him in when he was homeless.

When asked if he had a message for Cynthia Crampton’s family, Hurd said he felt horrible for taking away someone’s daughter and mother. He said he wished Crampton didn’t have to suffer as long as she did, but “I do not feel bad. I wouldn’t change it if I could.”

Hurd told Saskatoon city police Sgt. Rob Sampson it took half an hour to kill Crampton with a hammer and various strangulation devices.

The hours-long interview, in which Hurd methodically described, in gruesome detail, how, why and when he decided to murder the 55-year-old woman, was played on Tuesday and Wednesday at his first-degree murder trial in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.

Crampton, a mother of two, died in her Stonebridge basement suite on Galloway Road on June 1, 2016. Two days later, one of her daughters found her body face-down and covered in towels on her bathroom floor.

Dr. Shaun Ladham, Saskatchewan’s chief forensic pathologist, testified on Wednesday that Crampton died from blunt force trauma to the head. She had been hit 10 times, but Ladham could not definitively say which one was the fatal blow.

Crampton had methamphetamine in her system when she died, Ladham said when crossexamined by the defence. Hurd told police Crampton sold drugs and got his girlfriend, Tammy Poffley, addicted to painkillers.

During his police interview, Hurd only became emotional when he talked about Poffley.

“I love you Tammy,” he said while alone in the interview room.

Hurd said he killed Crampton because she was a “horrible person” who tried to have sex with him while he was staying with her during a separation from Poffley. He said Crampton threatened to kick him out in the middle of the night, knowing he had arrest warrants. That was the breaking point, Hurd said. He called it a “justified, premeditated” murder, something he had thought about for days.

After attacking Crampton in the bathroom, Hurd said he wanted to steal as much as he could from her before taking a “little trip.” Instead, he said he fell asleep and remained in the suite with her body for two nights.

Hurd was arrested on June 5, 2016, in a stolen car west of Saskatoon. He told Sampson he wanted to confess to the murder because he knew he left behind a lot of evidence.

“I feel better now,” he said when Sampson briefly left the room.

In the video portions played on Wednesday, Hurd acknowledged that his removed demeanour was not normal.

“I know I’m a sick puppy in my head. I’ve got some pretty sick (expletive) going on up there,” he said.

Hurd told Sampson he had been in a psychiatric ward nine times and used to take 14 different medications for bipolar disorder, suicidal thoughts and insomnia. He asked the officer if he would be serving time in jail or a psychiatric ward, considering his background.

He described killing Crampton as the first violent thing he’d ever done. When Sampson asked what led to that behaviour, Hurd said the barriers in his life — wife, children, work — that would have kept him from such actions had fallen away and he was tired of being pushed around.

Hurd, who used to be a welder in Calgary, said he started using hard drugs after losing his wife, job and custody of his children in 2010.

The Crown closed its case on Wednesday and defence lawyer Morris Bodnar chose not to call evidence.