Hours leading up to Taya Sinclair's death described at Saskatoon murder trial

A Saskatoon judge has now heard about the hours just before and after Taya Sinclair's death.

But the exact alleged involvement of Michael Smillie, the 63-year-old man charged with first-degree murder in her death, still hasn't been revealed after four days of his trial in Court of King's Bench.

Sinclair, 24, was killed in March 2022 in Saskatoon. Her body was taken to Prince Albert and set on fire in a snow dump on the southwest side of the city.

Stephanie Halkett-Stevenson, who is serving an 18-year sentence for manslaughter in Sinclair's death, was called by the Crown to testify on Thursday at Smillie's trial, which is being heard by Justice Andrew Davis.

Halkett-Stevenson said she was a "soldier" in the Terror Squad street gang and helped lure Sinclair's boyfriend, who owed money for drugs, to a location. She said an acquaintance used the boyfriend's phone to get Sinclair to come over.

That acquaintance was Chelsey Crowe, who was scheduled to stand trial for manslaughter at the same time as Smillie's first-degree murder trial. Crowe, however, pleaded guilty on Monday to the lesser charge of assault. She returns to court at the end of the month for sentencing.

Both Sinclair and her boyfriend were confined for some time in a closet in Crowe's apartment on Avenue K South, until Crowe asked her to take Sinclair somewhere else, Halkett-Stevenson said.

She said she didn't know where they were going, but a driver took her and Sinclair to Smillie's house on Avenue C North, in Saskatoon's Mayfair neighbourhood.

Halkett-Stevenson said she zip-tied Sinclair to a pole beside the furnace in the basement. While they were down there, she said Smillie came down and when Sinclair tried to say something, Smillie punched Sinclair, telling her to shut up.

Halkett-Stevenson, who described using crystal meth regularly throughout the time involved, said she went upstairs for awhile, then returned to the basement, "smoked a bowl" of crystal meth with Sinclair and told her she was going to be let go.

Halkett-Stevenson said she then left to go on a date, and didn't return to Smillie's house until much later in the day.

"I came back into the house. Michael was flipping out. He says, 'Clean up your f–ing mess. Clean up your f–ing mess.' I go, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'Don't f–ing put that shit on me.'"

Halkett-Stevenson said she went into the kitchen, where she saw Sinclair dead on the floor, covered by a blue tarp.

She said she ended up leaving and asking Crowe what she should do. She said Crowe arranged for a "driver" to take her back to Smillie's house, where the driver loaded Sinclair's body into the back of a car. Then they drove around for awhile, wondering what to do.