An expert tech crimes officer with the Calgary Police Service testified Monday, as the double-murder trial of Edward Downey entered its third week of evidence.
Const. Ian Whiffin detailed conversations he extracted from Downey’s BlackBerry when he was arrested July 13, 2016.
Downey has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Sara Baillie and her five-year-old daughter Taliyah Marsman.
Baillie was found dead inside her northwest Calgary basement suite on July 11, 2016.
Taliyah’s body was found three days later, outside city limits, following an Alberta-wide Amber Alert.
It’s the Crown’s theory that Downey killed Baillie because she was trying to get AB (a woman who cannot be named due to a court-imposed publication ban) to break up with him and was helping her stay away from work as an escort.
The Crown has told the jury Downey later killed Taliyah because she witnessed her mother’s murder.
On Monday, Whiffin read BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) messages from Downey’s phone. The Crown alleges Downey was expressing his view of Baillie’s influence on his girlfriend.
The messages appeared to be between Downey and someone named “Jiggy” as well as Downey and “Kukuie.”
Watch below: (From Nov. 30, 2018) There was an emotional end to an extremely difficult week for family and friends of Sara Baillie and her five-year-old daughter Taliyah Marsman. Edward Downey has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the deaths of the mother and daughter. Nancy Hixt reports.
In one message, Downey told Kukuie, “I’m down to one bitch and she’s square.”
The Crown alleges Downey had taken steps towards getting his girlfriend to work as an escort but she had decided “it was something she was not going to do.”
“It’s for you to decide if Downey blamed Sara for this as well,” prosecutor Carla MacPhail told the jury in her opening statement.
Whiffin will continue his evidence Tuesday.
The trial is scheduled for three weeks.
Warning: photos may be disturbing to some readers
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