'Provide me names,' lawyer orders Terror Squad member on trial for murder

A Terror Squad member on trial for murder in Saskatoon has grudgingly identified two other members of the drug gang, after bowing to pressure from both the Crown prosecutor and the judge at her trial on Wednesday.

The dramatic exchange happened early in the day's testimony from 20-year-old Shaylin Sutherland-Kayseas, who is accused of first-degree murder in the 2016 death of Dylan Phillips,and proved one of the few moments where the accused let slip any details about her criminal "family."

"Provide me names," Crown lawyer Melodi Kujawa ordered twice in a strident tone, only to be met with long pauses and "I can't tell you" from Sutherland-Kayseas.

The logjam was broken by Judge Shawn Smith.

"I know you are trying to adhere to some code," he said to the accused. "But you have to choose your fights. This is not a good one."

Arguing for manslaughter

Defence lawyerJessie Buydens is arguing thatSutherland-Kayseas should be convicted of manslaughter.

Sutherland-Kayseas has admitted to being a Terror Squad member andto shooting Phillips, 24, in his parents' Saskatoon home in October 2016. But she says it was an accident, spurred by Phillips unexpectedly lunging at her.

"There wasn't any planning or deliberation," said Buydens.

Judge Smith, in trying to convince Sutherland-Kayseas to name names, reminded her that the minimum sentence for second-degree murder is life without parole for 10 years, versus a first-degree murder sentence of life without parole for 25 years.

Being a truthfulwitness could save her 15 years, Smith said from his bench.

That's when Sutherland-Kayseas finally confirmed that two other people who have been convicted of manslaughter in Phillips's death Trent Raymond Southwind and a 17-year-old youth who cannot be identified due to his age are fellow Terror Squad members.

Beyond that, however, Sutherland-Kayseas betrayed little else about the gang she says she joined about five years ago or her position within it.

Kujawa brought up a taped conversation of Sutherland-Kayseas's in which she said she had moved up the ranks of the gang thanks to the shooting.

But in her testimony Wednesday, Sutherland-Kayseas said she was lying.

"Kids boast when they want to do stuff," she said of the recorded conversation.

Sutherland-Kayseassaid she did not go to Phillips's home on orders from the gang, but went there of her own volition to steal drugs from Phillips.

In Terror Squad parlance, it was a "taxing" of Phillips, and one done under the heavy influence of crystal meth, she said.

Sutherland-Kayseas said she brought a sawed-off Marlin rifle as a "prop."

"If it was there, it would go easy," she said of the gun.

Phillips was washing dishes in his parents' home when Sutherland-Kayseas, Southwind and the youth came knocking at the back door.

"He tried to grab the gun so yeah, I ended up shooting him. But that was never my intention," Sutherland-Kayseas said.

'You didn't see nothing'

Her loyalty to the Terror Squad came up a second time during her cross-examination byKujawa.

Sutherland-Kayseas admitted that earlier Wednesday morning, she had crossed paths with the youth convicted in Phillips's death, who was slated to testify right after Sutherland-Kayseas.

"'You didn't see nothing.You didn't hear nothing. Don't say anything,'" she admitted saying to the youth, who ultimately did not testify.

With that, the defence wrapped its case.

Final arguments in the judge-only trial are expected to happen Friday.