A critical witness in a Windsor murder trial, that has gripped public attention, resumed her testimony on Tuesday, astonishing the courtroom with her insights during the defence’s examination.
The trial in focus, revolves around an unfortunate fatal incident that transpired in Windsor’s downtown area in August 2018. The catastrophic incident sadly resulted in the demise of a youthful 20-year-old individual named Jason Pantlitz-Solomon, who was an active student of the University of Windsor.
Earlier, on Monday, Keima Davis-Baynes, the key witness, stood on the witness stand, responding to queries from the Crown while justifying her prior decision to mislead the law enforcement during an interview wherein she had implicated the defendant, Kahli Johnson-Phillips, in the tragic shooting that occurred at the junction of Ouellette and University Avenues back in 2018.
Since that police interview, she has recanted her initial narrative given during a sequence of police interrogations that spanned the summer of 2019.
Once again, on Tuesday, she found herself on the dreaded stand, this time answering questions from Michael Moon, Johnson-Phillip’s defence attorney.
Moon proceeded to replay a police interview recorded in June of 2019 where Windsor Police Det. Chris Shaw was seen questioning Davis-Bayne’s participation in the grim Windsor shooting. In this presentation, a notably poignant statement from Shaw echoes around the courtroom, “Only you, in your heart, know what the real truth is.”
Despite the gravity of the interrogation, Davis-Baynes seemed languid and disinterested, her gaze consistently directed towards the floor. Michael Moon suggested to the jury that this behaviour could be attributed to Davis-Baynes’s past as a sex-trafficked prostitute.
In her detailed testimony, Davis-Baynes brought to light grueling details of coercion and fear associated with her past as a prostitute. She draws a parallel between her interrogations and the threats from her former pimps, stating that she behaved in a similar way when they demanded, under the threat of violence, all the money she earned from her illicit encounters.
Davis-Baynes also discussed testifying under the condition of being heavily pregnant and her desperate desire to protect her unborn child from a future that mirrored her own tortured existence. She received assurances of aid, including protective custody, from her defence and promises of leading a new life under a new identity.
In a tearful admission, she confessed to having fabricated her initial statement to the police to garner her freedom and a chance to mother her unborn child, a decision that backfired, leaving her in the unenviable position of a pawn in the hands of the legal system.
In a shocking turn of events, Davis-Bayne also accused her lawyer of betrayal and planting the seeds of her dismal perjury. She lamented that despite her cooperation and willingness to self-incriminate under duress, she was subjected to a physically strenuous transfer to Thunder Bay for a separate trial while being heavily pregnant, an ordeal which she claims pushed her body into premature labor.
In the end, despite her desperate attempts to escape the grim life of prison bars and criminal trials and give her child the life she never had, Davis-Bayne revealed, she ended up bringing her child into the world as an inmate.
The spotlight remains on Davis-Baynes as she is expected to provide vital clarifications and expand on her startling revelations when she resumes her testimony on Wednesday.
