CALGARY -- Alberta's top court has rejected a request for a new trial from a man convicted of killing a Calgary woman and her young daughter.

Edward Downey was appealing two convictions of first-degree murder in the 2016 deaths of Sara Baillie and five-year-old Taliyah Marsman.

A trial in 2018 heard graphic evidence of how Baillie was found dead in a laundry basket in her daughter's bedroom with duct tape wrapped around her face, neck and wrists.

Three days later, the child was found dead in some bushes east of the city.

Both died of asphyxiation.

A jury found Downey guilty and he was sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 50 years.

The three-member Appeal Court panel rejected defence arguments that highly prejudicial evidence about Downey should not have been shown to the jury and that the trial judge erred in his jury address.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 20, 2021