Judge provides decision on evidence to be used against Jason McKay, crown rests

Jenny McKay, 33 at the time of her death, was killed in Regina in Sept. 2017. (Source: P&K Macdonald)

REGINA — A judge has decided that most of the evidence entered against Jason McKay is admissible, and will be used against him in the trial proper.

Jason Daniel McKay is charged with second degree murder in the 2017 death of his wife, Jenny.

Many of the details presented prior to Wednesday were under a voir dire, or a trial within a trial. This means that evidence is presented to the judge who is tasked with determining its relevance and whether it will be considered as part of the trial.

The judge provided his decision on the voir dire, which was broken down into two categories.

First voir dire

The first category dealt with utterances made by Jason following his arrest. Two of these utterances were recorded by audio and video in the police cruiser, and at the station. Three utterances were recalled by witnessing police officers.

This part of the voir dire was broken down into five sub-categories:

All of the evidence listed above was deemed admissible.

Second voir dire

The second category dealt with testimony from the weeks leading up to Jenny’s death. The evidence within this category needed to provided relevant examples of the nature of Jenny and Jason’s relationship.

This part of the voir dire was broken down into two sub-categories:

This subcategory included testimony from Jason’s daughters about the incident on Aug. 27 when Alyssa McKay was shoved by Jason, and Jenny called police. Jenny’s coworker and supervisor who was helping her relocate testified that she and her husband witnessed Jason attempt to hit Jenny, and utterances made by Jason in a police car on his way to his mother’s house in which he threatened violence against Jenny were all admitted into evidence.

This subcategory included texts Jenny sent to a friend and a coworker where she described being in an abusive relationship, texts Jenny sent to Alyssa McKay in which Jenny said she was trying to leave Jason, a conversation between Jenny and a police officer on Aug. 27 where Jenny said she was abused and was trying to leave, a 911 call from Aug. 27 where Jenny said Jason was acting violent and would probably kill her and a diary entry from Jenny on Aug. 23. This diary entry said Jason was going to “bury her”.

All of the testimony listed above was admitted into evidence. The crown rested its case.

The defense for Jason McKay will bring forward an expert witness on Thursday morning.