Marissa Shephard at centre of competing affections as Baylee Wylie died, trial hears

While Baylee Wylie was being beaten to death and begging his attackers to stop, Devin Morningstar was thinking about winning the affections of Marissa Shephard, her murder trial heard Monday.

"All I could think about was her — 'she wants the bad boy,'" Morningstar told police in his videotaped statement, played for the Court of Queen's Bench.

"Instead of listening to [Wylie ask us] to stop, I told him to shut up," Morningstar sobbed, his hands covering his face.

"I really liked her and I was really scared of Tyler," he said, providing the jury with a glimpse of the twisted relationship between the four of them — Morningstar, Shephard, Wylie and Tyler Noel — that night in December 2015.

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• Illness postpones Marissa Shephard trial until Monday 
• Baylee Wylie's last hours detailed during police interview with Devin Morningstar  

Shephard, 22, of Moncton, is charged with first-degree murder and arson with disregard for human life in the death of Wylie, 18.

Firefighters found his body in her burned-out townhouse at 96 Sumac St. on Dec. 17, 2015.

Morningstar, who was arrested on Dec. 20, gave his sworn statement to Codiac Regional RCMP at the Shediac detention centre on Dec. 22.

He is ​shown seated at a table with his handcuffed hands intertwined. His arms look thin in the large black tank top he's wearing.

Morningstar told Cpl. Laurent Lemieux that just days before the murder, while he was sleeping with Shephard, Wylie and Noel shared a sexual encounter.

He saw graphic photos of the sexual act on Wylie's Blackberry, he said, but the phone was destroyed at Morningstar's apartment after the murder. He did not indicate who destroyed the phone, or how.

Noel became angry when Wylie told the group about the encounter, said Morningstar.

On the drug-fuelled night of the murder, Wylie was also upset because Shephard, whom he described as his girlfriend, kept going down to the basement with Noel.

Wylie wanted Morningstar and Noel out of the house so he could be alone with Shephard and threatened to report the two men to police. Morningstar sold marijuana, while Noel sold cocaine, crack and clonazepam, and had a .22 calibre firearm hidden under the couch at Shephard's home, the courtroom heard.

Morningstar, who was 18 at the time, said he must have missed the argument, but Noel and Shephard went to him with a plan. Shephard told him to pretend some of his weed was missing and to blame Wylie.

"I was so manipulated. I felt like if I didn't do this, I was going to lose this big game … with Tyler … to win Marissa over."

He had only known Shephard for a few days but she was "really flirtatious," he said.

All three took turns striking and stabbing Wylie, Morningstar told the officer during his 2½-hour statement. He recalled Shephard grabbing a broken bong and "hitting [Wylie] as hard as she could."

At one point, they let Wylie up, agreed they would all be friends again and "smoked some weed together," he said.

But then Noel declared "the kid can't leave the house" and they attacked Wylie again.

"It wasn't just Tyler, Missy was stabbing him too," said Morningstar, referring to Shephard by her nickname.

"She got me too, while I was holding him down."

Noel was using a knife with a two-inch blade, said Morningstar. Asked about Shephard, he said, "I know at one point she took the broken mirror … and put it that far in his neck."

Shephard sat with her back to the public in the courtroom as she watched the video on the screen, occasionally taking notes.

Morningstar admitted he stabbed Wylie too, with guidance from Noel. He was shaking and tried to say no, but Noel insisted, he said.

Wylie was stabbed about 200 times, the courtroom heard. Morningstar told an undercover officer he stabbed Wylie three times.

During his videotaped statement, he attributed 50 of the stab wounds to Shephard and the rest to Noel.

Every time Wylie would move, Noel would "run full tilt" at him and attack him again, he said.

They eventually left Wylie in the basement and went upstairs. When Noel and Shephard heard a noise, they sent Morningstar back down to check on Wylie.

Wylie begged him for help, he said, breaking down again at the memory. He said he told Wylie he didn't know what to do. "They'll kill me too … I'm sorry."

No body, no crime

Morningstar told police he suspected Noel sent him downstairs so he could be alone with Shephard. While Wylie was struggling to stay alive, the young men were concerned with who would "get the girl."

He described Wylie's final moments, as the blood drained from his body.

"I remember how white he was," he said.

Then Morningstar and Shephard started trying to clean Wylie's body to remove any evidence.

It was not his idea to burn the home, he said, but he did tell Shephard and Noel, "with no body, there's no crime."

Shephard doused a box spring in Axe body spray and it was placed on Wylie's body, he said.

Shephard's neighbour Helen Patria Mandy previously testified she was asleep with her two children when the fire started.

Morningstar turned to the video camera and said if Wylie's family watches his statement, he's sorry. Wylie's grandfather and aunt, who were in the courtroom Monday, watched silently.

Noel should be in jail, not him, he said, adding Shephard should also be held accountable.

"I can really help you track them down, because if you haven't caught them yet, you obviously need help."

'I'm so dead'

Earlier in the day Monday, the jury heard an audio recording made by an undercover officer posing as Morningstar's cellmate on the night of his arrest.

Morningstar told the undercover officer he was being framed for Wylie's murder; that Shephard and Noel were "the killers."

"My lawyer told me not to say [anything] but I did," he said in the muffled recording, as the jurors followed along with a typed transcript of the conversation.

"I'm so dead, I'm a … rat."

Morningstar said he was worried Noel would be looking for him, but that he would get Noel arrested.

He said Shephard was also scared of Noel, who had decided he wanted her. That's why she ran off with Noel instead of staying with Morningstar — to protect her son and herself, he said.

Refused to testify

Morningstar, now 20, was called three times to testify at Shephard's trial. Standing in handcuffs and shackles before the judge, he refused each time.

His interview with police on the day of his arrest was played in court last Thursday.

In the video, Morningstar detailed Wylie's last hours and said he was stabbed between 100 and 200 times, "everywhere." At that time, he attributed about 25 of the wounds to Shephard, not 50, as he later said in his sworn statement.

The trial is scheduled to resume on Tuesday morning with cross-examination of the officer who took Morningstar's statement.