The defence found gaps and inconsistencies in a key witness’s testimony during cross-examination Monday in the murder trial for the death of Taya Sinclair.
Stephanie Helkett-Stevenson, who is serving 18 years after pleading guilty to manslaughter for her role in Sinclair’s death, shed light on what may have led to Sinclair’s remains being found burned in a snow pile in Prince Albert, Sask., in March 2022.
Michael Smillie faces one count of first-degree murder in Sinclair’s death. He has pleaded not guilty. Chelsey Wilma Crowe pleaded guilty last week to assault in the incident.
The judge allowed the Crown to bring forward more evidence to re-examine Helkett-Stevenson on Monday following defence lawyer Blain Beavan’s questioning due to multiple inconsistencies.
On March 13, 2022, Helkett-Stevenson brought Sinclair, who was under confinement, to a house on Avenue C North where Smillie reportedly lived.
Initially, she said multiple people were in the house but changed her testimony in cross-examination to say no one was there.
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During re-examination, she said Smillie was there when she first came in and said she could keep Sinclair in the basement and she didn’t know that a woman, Jessica Caisse, and her boyfriend were also at the house until she came upstairs.
She had some issues remembering what happened in the basement, where she says she saw Smillie hit Sinclair as well. She said she believes it was hard and more than once.
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She also had multiple accounts in her testimony about what happened after she left the house.
On Thursday, she testified she found out Sinclair had died when she saw a body under a blue tarp on the ground in the kitchen and Smillie yelled at her to “clean up her mess.”
She said in her final testimony that she found out Sinclair had died a few hours later when two women, someone she knew only as “Big Momma” and Caisse, told her to come back to the house to deal with Sinclair’s body.
Helkett-Stevenson said she didn’t believe it until she saw the remains. Confirming her prior testimony, she added he also said, “You know what you did.”
By the end of her testimony, Helkett-Stevenson acknowledged she does not know how Sinclair died and confirmed she was heavily using meth and had not slept for days at the time.
The trial is expected to continue Tuesday with Caisse taking the stand.
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