Lawyer tries to shift blame to witness at Regina toddler murder trial

CTV Regina: Adam Cyr trial continues Testimony resumed Wednesday at the trial of Adam Cyr, who is accused of killing two-year-old Natalia Shingoose.

The defence lawyer for a man accused of murdering his girlfriend's toddler tried Wednesday to shift the blame to a witness who said he checked on the girl the morning her body was found.

Adam Cyr, 34, is charged with second-degree murder in the June 2012 death of two-year-old Natalia Shingoose in a Regina home.

A jury has heard the girl died from repeated, intentional blows that broke her ribs, punctured a lung and caused internal bleeding.

Crown prosecutors say Cyr, who was the live-in boyfriend of the toddler's mother and was babysitting that night, beat the little girl to death while the mother was at work.

Cyr has denied killing the toddler. His lawyer Bob Hrycan argues Natalia's mother, Amanda Trevors, was involved in drug trafficking and people who filtered in and out of the house could have committed the crime.

On Wednesday, Hrycan pointed to Trevors's close family friend, Matthew Bennett, as a possible suspect.

Bennett testified last week that he was walking by the house in the early morning on the day the child's body was found and noticed the screen door was open. He said he went inside and woke Natalia's mother. The two of them then checked on the girl from the entrance to her room, he said.

Bennett was recalled to the witness stand Wednesday where Hrycan challenged his story.

Hrycan outlined Bennett's long criminal record which includes drug-related offences, breaking and entering and the assault of a police officer. The lawyer suggested Bennett knew there were drugs in the house and planned to rob it.

It was a charge which Bennett denied.

If Bennett didn't break in himself, he would have known there had been a possible break-and-enter because of the open door, Hrycan said.

"You didn't do one thing beyond checking the door in Natalia's room and then leaving," Hrycan said. "Amanda Trevors never did one thing beyond standing behind you and watching you leave, correct?

"Her bedroom is four feet from the point of entry of the break-in and not one adult in the home actually walks up to Natalia to check her?" Hrycan asked.

He called Bennett's version of the events a "nonsense story." Bennett called the lawyer "delusional."

"That's interesting coming from you, Mr. Bennett ... it's you who has the criminal record, correct?" he said. "It's you who has the drug habit, correct?

"It's you who goes into places to take things that they want, correct?"

Hrycan highlighted Bennett's agitation in video taken while he waited to be questioned by police. The video shows Bennett hyperventilating, crying, pacing the room and rattling the locked doorknob to get out. A police officer tells Bennett to settle down.

"You appear to be in great agony, do you agree?" Hrycan asked.

"I do," Bennett said.

Hrycan said the man didn't do much to help police officers even though he had just learned about the death of a child he considered a niece.

"Or I just don't like talking to cops," Bennett replied.

Last week, court heard that police found a pillowcase containing the DNA of Cyr, the girl and an unidentified person, as well as a child's bookbag and child's shoes, in the neighbour's garbage can.

During Cyr's nine-hour police interrogation, he was shown a photo of the bookbag and he identified it as belonging to the girl's family and said it was in the home's master bedroom.

Throughout the video Cyr denied having anything to do with the child's death.

The trial, which began last week, is to continue Thursday. It was initially slated to take two weeks, but earlier this week Judge Fred Kovach told jurors it could take longer.