Calgary jurors to decide whether rejected rapist guilty of 1st or 2nd degree murder
Meghan Grant | CBC News | Posted: September 19, 2018 9:36 PM | Last Updated: September 19, 2018
WARNING: Details in this story are graphic
Her blood on his shoes, his semen inside of her.
Dawns Baptiste's battered body was found two days after she was beaten, raped and murdered in February 2015. She died alone, in the snow, in a stranger's backyard.
On Wednesday afternoon, lawyers for the prosecution and defence made their final arguments before the jury.
Prosecutor Carla MacPhail told jurors at Curtis Healy's first-degree murder trial they should have no doubt he is guilty as charged and that the accused was "motivated by the rage he felt when [Baptiste] rejected him."
Healy's own lawyer says he is guilty of murder, but Shamsher Kothari told jurors they should convict his client of the lesser offence of second-degree murder.
"This case isn't about who caused the death of Ms. Baptiste; Curtis Healy caused the death of Ms. Baptiste," said Kothari.
"You'll convict Mr. Healy of murder but it's not first-degree murder because you cannot be sure of what happened — I'm asking you to return here with a verdict of guilty to second-degree murder."
There are several paths jurors can find to a verdict of first-degree murder. A finding that Baptiste was confined or sexually assaulted during the course of the murder would elevate it to first.
Beyond the DNA evidence to be considered, MacPhail also reminded jurors of the details of Healy's confession.
After his arrest on Feb. 15, 2015, Healy told homicide Det. Colum Cavilla that he became enraged after his sexual advances were rejected by Baptiste on the streets in the northeast community of Whitehorn.
The two had met earlier that evening on a C-Train but Baptiste had plans to stay the night at a friend's home and told Healy she had somewhere to go.
He followed, and when she told him to "f--k off," he threw her to the ground, stomped on her head 17 times, hit her with a liquor bottle and dragged her to a nearby backyard.
There, he raped his unconscious victim and then decided to "finish her off" with a rock he found there. He smashed Baptiste in the head and walked out of the yard.
'This case is about 2 hours and 43 minutes'
But Kothari called Healy a "low functioning person" who "latched onto certain words" used by Cavilla. Words like "finish her off," argued the defence lawyer.
"When you combine the physical evidence plus Mr. Healy's inherently unreliable statement, you cannot be sure of what happened," said Kothari.
Healy's semen was found on Baptiste's pants and in her vagina. Her blood was discovered on his clothing.
But Kothari said there is no evidence when the sexual assault took place, that it may have taken place separate from the attack. With doubt as to the timing of the rape and murder, Kothari argued Healy should be found guilty of second-degree murder instead of first.
"This case is about two hours and 43 minutes in the early morning hours of Feb. 11, 2015," Kothari told the jury. That's the amount of time from when Baptiste and Healy were last seen leaving the Whitehorn LRT station to when Healy was spotted at a 7-Eleven with blood on his clothing.
On Thursday, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Charlene Anderson will deliver instructions to jurors on how to apply the law in deliberations. They'll be sequestered until a verdict is reached.
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