The man on trial for the murders of Sara Baillie and Taliyah Marsman in the summer of 2016 says he did not kill the little girl and her mother and his testimony continued in a Calgary courtroom on Thursday.

(**Warning: Graphic content)

Edward Downey faces two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Baillie, 34, and her five-year-old daughter Taliyah.

Baillie’s body was found with duct tape wrapped around her neck and face, stuffed into a laundry basket in a closet of her Panorama Hills home on July 11, 2016.

The body of her five-year-old daughter, Taliyah, was found three days later in a rural area east of Calgary.

On Wednesday, Downey testified in his own defence and told the jury that he had a vast criminal record but that he had nothing to do with the murders.

Downey admitted that he was at Baillie’s home on the morning of July 11, 2016 but said he wasn’t there alone.

He said he was there with a friend named Terrance and another man and that he was picking up drugs from Terrance.

During the interaction, Downey said Taliyah went into a bedroom while Terrance and Baillie argued in another room.

He said that at one point, Terrance yelled for tape and Downey said that he tore off a strip and gave it to him.

In previous testimony, the jury heard that two of Downey’s fingerprints were found on the duct tape that was found wrapped around Baillie’s mouth.

Downey said he left to go and get money and when he returned, Terrance and the other man were outside the residence.

He said they all left and that he drove east of the city to the drug meeting point. The defence said that’s why cell phone data connected Downey to the area where Taliyah’s body was eventually discovered.

Downey was asked directly if he killed Baillie and Taliyah and he said ‘No.’

His denial prompted an emotional outburst from Taliyah’s father, who swore before leaving the courtroom.

Crown prosecutor Carla MacPhail asked Downey if Taliyah knew him well enough to recognize him and he answered ‘yes she did.’

Downey was back on the stand on Thursday for cross-examination and the Crown asked about the trip he took to Edmonton with his ex-girlfriend, who can only be named as AB.

MacPhail asked Downey if the purpose of the trip was for her escorting and if it meant performing sexual acts for money, and he replied ‘yes.’

She also asked if AB decided she did not want to work as a prostitute and he answered ‘yes.’

The Crown asked Downey about an incident outside a nightclub where he admitted that he ‘smacked’ AB, who was with her best friend, Baillie, that night.

MacPhail said AB’s sister wanted to talk to Downey after the incident, at about 4:30 a.m., and suggested that the only person who could have told AB’s sister about what happened was Baillie.

She asked him if he no longer felt welcome at family events following the incident with AB and he replied, ‘No, I didn’t.’ She then asked if Baillie and AB were spending a lot of time together at the time and Downey said that ‘they always hung out.”

MacPhail moved on to the text messages between Downey and his friend named Kukuie and asked about the ‘I’m down to one bitch and she square’ text. Downey said they were talking about women and when asked if he was talking about AB, he said ‘maybe.’

Downey was asked about text messages to AB and the Crown suggested that he felt Baillie was influencing AB to ‘become bad’ and disrespect him.

The Crown asked about an iPhone that was found in a vehicle Downey was driving and about it being tracked near Baillie’s home on July 10, 2016 at about 11:00 p.m.

He said he was in the area selling cocaine and when asked if the reason he was in Panorama Hills was so he could drive by Baillie’s home, he said “I wouldn’t have driven by Sara Baillie’s place.’

MacPhail then asked about the two men he said he met with on the morning of July 11 and if he agreed to go to Baillie’s house to buy drugs from them. He said ‘yes.’

The prosecution asked about the tape that Downey said Terrance asked for while he was in a room with Baillie. MacPhail inquired if the friend tossed him the tape and if he ripped off a piece about 18 inches long and he agreed.

She asked if he had phone numbers for the two men he met that day and he said he didn’t remember if he got them from them.

The prosecution suggested that the timeline Downey gave when he went home didn’t match with the data from his cellphone use from July 11, 2016.

MacPhail asked about the plan to meet with the two men later for a drug deal and if the reason Terrance’s contact wasn’t in Downey’s phone was because he didn’t exist and that Downey was not with him on July 11.

Downey replied ‘yes I was’ and the Crown suggested that it would then make sense for Downey to have Terrance’s number, since he said Terrance had four kilograms of cocaine.

The Crown also suggested that the unnamed man didn’t exist. 

The Crown asked about a five minute gap in texting and if Downey was busy dumping Taliyah’s body in the bushes during that time and he said that he did not dump her in the bushes.

MacPhail then suggested that Downey did not go to the hospital when asked by AB to look for Baillie because he knew she was dead because he killed her and Downey replied, ‘I did not kill Sara.’

After the lunch break, the Crown continued to question Downey and asked if he kept Baillie and Taliyah against their will and he said ‘No, I did not.’ He also denied punching Baillie in the stomach to wind her and taping her face.

The Crown suggested that Downey’s initial plan was to take Baillie’s body and dispose of it and that’s why he put her in the laundry bag. Downey responded by saying that he did not kill Baillie or Taliyah.

MacPhail asked if Downey left with Taliyah after 10:19 a.m., when her iPad was last used, and if he took her to the dump site and he denied it.

The Crown continued to question Downey about the disposal of Baillie’s and Taliyah’s bodies and family members of the victims sobbed as they heard the exchange.

Defence Lawyer, Gavin Wolch, asked a few questions after MacPhail finished her cross-examination.

He asked Downey about the extensive contact list on his BlackBerry and how many phones he had.  Downey responded that he had two of three.

The defence wrapped its case after that and closing arguments will be heard on Monday and the jury will be given final instructions on Wednesday.

Follow @CTVInaSidhu for complete coverage of the trial