Man who pleaded guilty in Dylan Phillips death refuses to testify in murder trial

Shaylin Sutherland-Kayseas is accused of shooting and killing Dylan Phillips at his home in Oct. 2016. (Court exhibit)

A key Crown witness refused to answer questions when he took the stand to testify Monday in the murder trial of 20-year-old Shaylin Sutherland-Kayseas.

Trent Southwind, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of Dylan Phillips, was set to testify as a Crown witness but refused. Kayseas is accused of shooting and killing Phillips at his home in Oct. 2016.

“I’m not going to testify,” Southwind said, adding his lawyer told him not to say anything.

Crown prosecutor Melodi Kujawa asked him to confirm that he pleaded guilty in relation to the case, to which he didn’t respond.

Justice Shawn Smith told Southwind he would be facing an additional year of prison time for being in contempt of court.

“You are facing no good options but that’s what sometimes happens with gang life,” Justice Shawn Smith told Southwind. “No good options.”

Sutherland-Kayseas is charged with first-degree murder, committing murder for the benefit of the Terror Squad gang and two counts of assault on Phillips’s parents. Court heard his parents witnessed the murder.

She admitted to shooting and killing Phillips during a robbery in a videotaped warned statement with police, which was played in court last week. She didn’t plan on killing him and didn’t mean to, she said in the interview.

Sutherland-Kayseas said she didn’t know Phillips but knew he dealt marijuana and needed money. She told Det. Sgt. Corey Lenius the shooting happened in a scuffle when she went to Phillips’s home on the 1400 block of Avenue G North.

She loaded a gun before going into the home, she told Lenius. She said she asked where the drugs are and pointed a gun at Phillips. Phillips grabbed the gun, she pulled the trigger and a fight broke out, according to Sutherland-Kayseas.

“It all happened too fast,” she said in the warned statement to Lenius, adding it was “either him or us.”

Justice Smith sentenced Southwind to one year for being in contempt of court. That year is to be served consecutively to his eight-year sentence for manslaughter.

The trial continues Tuesday when the Crown is expected to call a witness to testify about street gangs. Justice Smith with ultimately decide whether the witness can be classified as an expert in street gangs.