Damien Taylor and slain pregnant girlfriend CJ Fowler were in love, says defence lawyer
The trial of B.C. man Damien Taylor, accused of killing his pregnant 16-year-old girlfriend CJ Fowler, resumed in Kamloops on Tuesday with closing arguments from his defence lawyer.
Don Campbell told the jury his client could not have willfully killed Fowler and said Taylor, 24, was likely suffering from psychosis and paranoia when Fowler died, the effects of several days of taking crystal meth and other drugs.
The body of Fowler, also known as Summer Star Elizabeth Krista-Lee Fowler, of the Gitanmaax First Nation Band near Terrace, was found under a cement block in a ravine near Kamloops in December 2012.
The teenager died of asphyxiation after the 25-kilogram block crushed her jaw and neck.
The Crown says Fowler was killed just hours after the couple learned she was pregnant, when she went to the hospital with chest pains after smoking speed with her friends.
Fowler was last seen with Taylor, leaving the Kamloops hospital.
On Tuesday,Taylor sat quietly in the prisoner's box as Campbell told the jury that Taylor and Fowler were in love, making plans to leave a life of drugs to support a baby on the way.
"If Taylor was in his right mind, why would he extinguish the best thing in his life?" Campbell asked the jury."Why would he willingly commit murder?"
Campbell said there's no evidence of a motive and asked the jury to find Taylor not guilty of second degree murder.
But, the Crown told the jury, Taylor was in a right enough mind to change his pants after Fowler died, and hide blood stains on his sock with a bandana.
The Crown said Taylor then told a series of lies to RCMP investigators and argued that none of Taylor's testimony can be trusted --— including his story of smoking meth and blacking out before Fowler died.
The trial continues.
