The woman accused of killing a nine-year-old girl with a pickup truck in 2021 testified during a voir-dire in Saskatoon provincial court Wednesday.
Taylor Kennedy is charged with drug-impaired driving causing the death of nine-year-old Baeleigh Maurice, who was riding a scooter across a marked crosswalk on 33rd Street West.
The Crown closed out its evidence in the trial-proper before Kennedy took the stand to testify in an already open voir-dire — a trial within the trial.
At the crash scene on Sept. 9, 2021, Kennedy told officers she had smoked marijuana and microdosed mushrooms the day prior, prompting an oral swab for THC from a drug recognition expert.
Her defence lawyer Thomas Hynes took issue with the swab in a previous trial hearing, saying his client was under psychological detainment and wasn’t aware of her right to remain silent.
Kennedy told court on Wednesday that she gave the statement to police without a lawyer present because that’s what she learned growing up.
“It was the law and I had to,” Kennedy said.
In her testimony she said she told police that she wanted to speak to a lawyer.
Video evidence from the Saskatoon Police Service played in court heard that when Kennedy was given the option by police, she only said “I just want to go home, I didn’t do anything.”
The video showed Kennedy in extreme distress, sobbing while officers were reading her rights, her words her words coming out in jumbled screams, difficult to make out.
Kennedy said she was having a “manic episode” and that she was speaking “gibberish.”
Court heard that Kennedy is medicated for several mental health diagnoses including anxiety, depression, ADHD, bipolar disorder and border-line personality disorder and that she has been involved in other vehicle accidents, including one that resulted in her being summoned to traffic court.
The prosecution asked Kennedy to tell the court about an incident that happened to one of her friends around 10 years ago.
Kennedy said her friend was hit by a vehicle and left to die on the street where she passed away. She stayed on the scene of Maurice’s death to try to avoid the same situation.
Kennedy called the ambulance to the scene of Maurice’s death.
The case was adjourned until the judge can rule on whether the evidence given in the voir-dire is admissible in the trial.
The judge is expected to decide at a later date as to whether Kennedy’s testimony and others given during the voir-dire will be admissible in the trial.
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