Dead toddler’s mother gives emotional testimony in murder trial of ex-boyfriend

REGINA – Tensions ran high in a Regina courtroom Thursday when a woman lashed out at the man accused of beating her toddler to death.

“You’re a bastard,” Amanda Trevors shouted from the witness stand at her former live-in boyfriend, Adam Cyr.

Cyr, 34, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of two-year-old Natalia Shingoose. A jury has heard that Natalia died in June 2012 from repeated, intentional blows that broke her ribs, punctured a lung and caused internal bleeding.

The outburst came as Crown prosecutor James Fitz-Gerald showed Trevors, 30, a photo of the dead toddler wearing only a diaper, with visible injuries.

The Crown is arguing that Cyr, who was babysitting that night, beat the girl to death while Trevors was at work.

Cyr, has denied killing Natalia. His lawyer, Bob Hrycan, argues that Trevors was involved in drug trafficking and people who filtered in and out of the house could have committed the crime.

Fitz-Gerald asked Trevors about her criminal record. Jurors heard that she was convicted in 2011 of driving while impaired and, on a different occasion, of possession of a controlled substance.

“At the time I was selling cocaine,” Trevors said, who added that she didn’t sell drugs from her home or in the presence of her children. She said she stopped selling cocaine in December 2011 and didn’t use drugs herself.

Fitz-Gerald asked her about her drinking in June 2012.

“It was almost an everyday occurrence,” said Trevors as she described how she would drink an 18-pack of beer over two or three days.

Trevors spoke about Natalia as an independent and rambunctious little girl who “loved everything,” including climbing on furniture.

She testified that she had bathed the girl the day before finding her dead and hadn’t noticed any signs of injury.

She left Natalia in Cyr’s care, Trevors said, while she worked an afternoon shift that ended around 8:30 p.m. When she returned home, she looked in on her daughter.

“She was in her bed so I turned her TV on and closed her bedroom door.”

Trevors said the television soothed Natalia while she slept.

Fitz-Gerald asked Trevors if she checked whether Natalia was breathing.

“No,” she said, crying. “I wish I would’ve.

“I thought she was sleeping so I closed her door.”

She said sometime after 3 a.m. on the morning when Natalia was found dead, family friend Matthew Bennett rushed into the house and woke Trevors up.

Bennett has testified that he was walking by the house and noticed the screen door was open.

Trevors said Natalia’s door had been slightly ajar and the two checked on her from the doorway of the room. She added that Natalia’s doorknob had a child-proof lock to prevent her from wandering outside.

On Wednesday, Cyr’s defence lawyer, Bob Hrycan, pointed to Bennett as a possible suspect.

Hrycan suggested Bennett knew there were drugs in the house and planned to rob it – a charge which Bennett denied.

Trevors said she returned to bed after the interruption and when she checked on Natalia later that morning, the toddler was dead.

“Her face was so swollen,” she said, again crying. “I tried to pick her up but she was frozen.”

Trevors talked about the ordeal of calling 911 and attempting to resuscitate the girl. She told jurors that Cyr was sitting on the couch rocking back and forth.

“I was in shock,” she said.

She said when police asked her to leave Natalia, she placed a toy bear under the girl’s arm, “so she wouldn’t have to be alone.”

Last week, court heard that police found a pillowcase containing the DNA of Cyr, the girl and an unidentified person – as well as a child’s bookbag and child’s shoes – in the neighbour’s garbage can.

During a nine-hour police interrogation Cyr was shown a photo of the bookbag and identified it as belonging to the girl’s family and said it was in the home’s master bedroom.

Cyr denied having anything to do with the child’s death.

The trial will continue Friday.