'Wasn't enough for you to just kill her,' says Calgary judge in sentencing murderer, rapist to life in prison
For his "vicious and brutal" crime of raping and murdering a Calgary woman he'd met only hours earlier, a remorseless Curtis Healy was sentenced Monday to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
"It wasn't enough for you to just kill her, you had to degrade her," said Justice Charlene Anderson before sentencing Healy.
"You robbed of her sexual integrity, her dignity."
On Friday, a jury convicted Healy of first-degree murder after a two week trial.
Dawns Baptiste's battered body was found two days after she was beaten, raped and murdered on Feb. 11, 2015.
The overwhelming case presented by prosecutors Carla MacPhail and Samantha Manning included Healy's full confession to police and DNA evidence.
Baptiste had met Healy earlier that night on the C-Train. After getting off at the Whitehorn station, Healy began walking with his soon-to-be victim but she told him she had to get to her friend's house.
When she rejected his sexual advances, Healy began his attack, beating Baptiste to the ground and stomping on her head.
He dragged her into a nearby backyard where he raped his face down, unconscious victim and then used a rock to "finish her off," by smashing Baptiste in the head.
A passerby found Baptiste face down in the backyard, a rock caked in her blood and hair was near her body.
During his interview with a homicide detective, Healy appeared to be concerned only for himself, the judge noted.
"You showed absolutely no remorse or regret for what you did to her," said Anderson.
But Healy's lawyers, Shamsher Kothari and Curtis Mennie, say their client was medicated, hungover and has cognitive impairments.
"To be able to sift through all of those issues to find remorse is something better left for a psychiatrist or a doctor to opine on," said Kothari.
And although Baptiste's family members say they are ready to move forward, Kothari says he will appeal Healy's conviction.
Earlier in the sentencing hearing on Monday, seven of Baptiste's family members and friends delivered victim impact statements describing their loss and pain. Most of them — who were dressed in red T-shirts with her photo on the front — addressed Healy directly.
"You couldn't or didn't understand 'no,'" said Darlene Bear, one of Baptiste's best friends.
Baptiste was on her way to Bear's house the night she was killed.
"You're a lost soul," said Bear to Healy.
Alex Baptiste told Healy he will "never forgive" him. He spoke of his sister's four children who are now without a mother.
"You took away my little sister, you took away a mother that had a future, goals."
