Saskatoon judge to make ruling on evidence in fatal THC-impaired driving case
A Saskatoon Provincial Court judge will determine whether testimony from a woman, charged with impaired driving causing the death of a child, will be used as evidence in her trial.
Nine-year-old Baeleigh Maurice was on her way to school on Sept. 9, 2021, pushing her scooter at a 33rd Street West crosswalk, when she was struck by Taylor Kennedy’s truck.
Kennedy is charged with impaired driving, exceeding the prescribed blood-drug concentration of THC, causing death.
At the crash scene, Kennedy told officers she smoked weed and micro-dosed magic mushrooms the day before.
On Friday, Kennedy’s lawyer Thomas Hynes argued her admission to drug consumption was a “compelled statement”. He said officers told her she had to “give information to police” before she was read her rights.
“This was the epitome of no free choice,” he said.
Earlier this week Kennedy took the stand in a voir dire, a hearing to determine if the evidence will be used in trial. She testified she admitted to drug consumption because she thought it was “the law."
Hynes said police “entirely changed course” when Kennedy admitted to using drugs because it changed from a traffic safety investigation to a criminal investigation.
While Hynes made his argument, a member of the gallery stood up and said it wasn’t a criminal investigation because Baeleigh ‘wasn’t dead yet’, and told Hynes to “f*cking get it right” before leaving the courtroom.
Crown prosecutor Michael Pilon said calling it a compelled statement is a stretch. He said officers never told Kennedy she was required to answer their questions.
“That was never the evidence,” he said.
Pilon said officers told her it was important for her to share information so they can “relay that to the people trying to save Baeleigh’s life."
He said Kennedy admitted to using drugs without being prompted by police.
“Both officers denied asking her about drugs,” he said.
Pilon said Kennedy’s testimony should not be accepted because it is “not believable."
He argued Kennedy gave police information, because “she knew it was her fault” and she wanted to help Baeleigh. He said everything she did after the crash was because of her experience with Katie-her friend who died in a hit and run years prior.
“She was not going to let Baeleigh become another Katie,” he said.
The judge has reserved her decision on this matter. The case has been adjourned until Wednesday morning.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Triple murder or manslaughter? Sudbury jury deliberating fate of man responsible for fatal firebombing
After a lengthy series of instructions from Justice Dan Cornell, a Sudbury jury is deliberating whether to find a suspect guilty of three counts of manslaughter or three counts of murder.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’