Rejection caused accused rapist and murderer to 'snap,' jurors hear during confession
When he confessed to raping and beating to death a young woman who had rejected his advances, Curtis Healy was hungover and desperate to lie down, jurors in his first-degree murder trial witnessed on Monday.
"Can I go to jail now?" he asked homicide Det. Colum Cavilla in the small interview room at Calgary police headquarters.
Healy is on trial for first-degree murder for the February 2015 death of Dawns Baptiste, 31.
On Monday, jurors watched Cavilla's videotaped interview with the accused murderer during which Healy gives details of how he beat his victim unconscious before raping her and then delivered final blows to her head with a rock.
The interview took place on Feb. 15, 2015. Healy told Cavilla he was hungover and laid down on the floor several times.
Healy said he and Baptiste met on the C-Train in the early hours of Feb. 12, 2015.
They got off at Whitehorn station in northeast Calgary and began walking together. Healy told Cavilla he believed she would have sex with him, but she rejected his advances and punched him.
"That's what just made me snap," he told the detective.
Healy said he began his attack on the sidewalk in front of a stranger's home.
"I stomped her head off the ground like 17 times," said Healy.
Baptiste had her arms up trying to shield herself from his blows, Healy said. Blood was pouring from her mouth.
Then he said he dragged her into the backyard.
"I stripped her clothes off and then I raped her," Healy said.
Cavilla asked if Baptiste was conscious at that point.
"No, she was unconscious," Healy responded.
Afterward, Healy said he retrieved a rock and hit her in the head with it "to finish her off" because he was "pissed off."
Cross-examination
But defence lawyer Shamsher Kothari pointed out in cross-examination that Cavilla had been the one to first use the term "finish her off."
At one point in the interrogation Healy told the detective Baptiste had tried to stab him with something.
Kothari asked why Cavilla did not have follow-up questions about the alleged stabbing.
"I didn't put a lot of stock in the comment at the time it was made, I thought it was potentially an excuse that was made to justify the assault," Cavilla responded.
"I also didn't want to disturb the flow."
DNA evidence
Days later, Baptiste's body was found by a stranger in a backyard.
In her opening statement, Carla MacPhail told jurors that when police arrested Healy, he had blood on his shoes that would come back as a DNA match to Baptiste.
Two semen samples taken from Baptiste's body and clothing matched Healy's DNA.
Healy's lawyers Kothari and Curtis Mennie have not yet indicated if they will call their client to testify in his own defence.
Court of Queen's Bench Justice Charlene Anderson is presiding over the trial, which is in its second of three weeks.
