Manslaughter an option, Marissa Shephard jury hears before deliberations start
22-year-old Marissa Shephard is charged with murder and arson in death of Baylee Wylie
Justice Zoël Dionne told jurors at Marissa Shephard's murder trial they can find her guilty if they believe she was the principal actor in the killing of Baylee Wylie but also if they think she assisted or encouraged it.
"You don't actually have to determine who delivered the fatal blows," Dionne said in his instructions to the jury, which lasted into Monday night.
With the judge's charge now over, the jury is to begin deliberating at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Shephard, 22, is on trial for first-degree murder in the death of Wylie, 18, and for arson with disregard for human life. Wylie's stabbed and burned body was found in Shephard's Moncton townhouse on Dec. 17, 2015.
Two other people, Devin Morningstar and Tyler Noel, have already been convicted of murder.
Dionne spoke for eight hours as he delivered his instructions, telling jurors they had four options on the first-degree murder charge: guilty as charged, not guilty, guilty of second-degree murder, or guilty of manslaughter.
On the arson charge, they have a choice of guilty or not guilty.
Dionne said it was the jury's job to decide what the facts of the case are, based only on the evidence presented.
"You must not speculate or come up with theories," said Dionne.
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- Baylee Wylie's last hours detailed during police interview with Devin Morningstar
Jurors will have to decide whether the Crown proved beyond a reasonable doubt Shephard murdered the teenager and whether she set fire to the house afterward.
Dionne said the jury cannot decide that Shephard "probably" or "likely" killed Wylie. If this is the conclusion the jurors come to, they should find her not guilty.
Shephard sat in the prisoner's box during the judge's charge, paying attention as he read from 110 pages. Occasionally, she turned to look at who was sitting in the courtroom.
As Dionne finished for the morning, Shephard smiled, then tucked her chin inside her sweater, as if to hide her expression.
'Clearly the scene of a homicide'
Dionne said the scene at 96 Sumac St. was "clearly that of a homicide," and there also was no question a fire was set deliberately.
The question is whether Shephard participated in those crimes.
The judge pointed to Shephard's admission that she was at the house most of the night but said mere presence didn't make someone a participant.
"Sometimes a person just happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.
Murder versus manslaughter
Dionne also told the jury they must answer three questions to find Shephard guilty of murder beyond a reasonable doubt:
- Did she cause Wylie's death?
- Was her participation unlawful?
- Did she have the state of mind for murder, i.e. did she mean to kill Wylie, or cause him enough harm to kill him?
The judge said being intoxicated was not an excuse to commit an offence, but an advanced state of intoxication could remove the state-of-mind elements necessary to prove murder was the intent.
If jurors found this was the case, they should then find Shephard guilty of manslaughter instead of murder, he said.
Court heard various accounts of the drug-fuelled night that led to Wylie's last hours.
'Self-serving testimony'
On Friday, the Crown and the defence both presented closing arguments to the jury.
The Crown called Shephard's testimony "self-serving" and pointed to inconsistencies in her testimony.
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Shephard testified that after she came back from a second escort call that night, she saw Wylie with no shirt on, with "bong smoke" coming out of his lung.
But prosecutor Eric Lalonde said that statement wasn't compatible with the testimony of Dr. Ather Naseemuddin, who performed the autopsy and said he could not even see a lung wound because it was small.
The Crown said the most telling inconsistency came from Shephard's recollection of a conversation she had with Noel in Devin Morningstar's apartment after Wylie was killed.
Shephard testified Noel suggested killing Morningstar and Bailey Fillmore, who'd been at the Sumac Street house before the attack on Wylie. Shephard said she told Noel: "No, we are not killing anyone else."
Defence lawyer Gilles Lemieux told the court Friday morning there is a lack of physical evidence linking Shephard to Wylie's murder and argued it was because she wasn't present when the Moncton teenager was killed.
Court heard during the two-month long trial the only place where DNA belonging to Marissa Shephard was identified was on the porch outside the house.