By Ryan Pilon

Lead investigator takes stand in Jordan Crowe trial

Nov 30, 2010 | 1:08 PM

Staff Sgt. Jeff Rowden with the Prince Albert Police Service was the next witness to take the stand in the trial of Jordan Crowe.

Crowe is charged for second degree murder for allegedly killing three-year-old Dillon Donald Dec. 23, 2007.

Rowden was the lead investigator in the case and showed the jury a taped interview he conducted with Crowe at 3:32 a.m. on Dec. 24, 2007. This was after Donald had been taken by ambulance to the

Victoria Hospital and pronounced dead.

In the interview, Rowden asked Crowe to recount the events leading up to Donald’s death. Crowe responded by saying the boy’s mother had left the home to visit a friend. He ran a bath for Donald, measuring the amount of water with his fingers like he’d been taught in parenting classes, and sat Donald in the bathtub. He left him there briefly while he got a bottle for the baby, then came back and dressed Donald and sent him to bed.

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While watching television, Crowe could hear a banging noise coming from Donald’s room. He didn’t find that unusual, as Donald often fussed over going to sleep. He went into Donald’s room and told him to go to sleep. Crowe said he thought Donald was faking he was sleeping, like he usually did and he playfully threw Donald’s blanket over his face. When leaving, Crowe said he heard Donald make a weird sound, so he turned on the light and went back to the child. He lifted the blanket off the child’s face and saw that Donald’s eyes were open, saliva was coming out of the side of his mouth, and he let out one big, gasping breath.

In the video Crowe said he called emergency services and while the ambulance was on its way, the person on the phone instructed Crowe to check the boy’s airway and perform CPR.

Crowe said beforehand, there was nothing unusual he noticed about the child, other than he was having diarrhea and he was lying in an unusual position in bed.

During the interview, Rowden continued to come back to when Donald left the child in the bathtub, asking if he thought something could have happened during the time he left Donald alone that could have harmed him. He also told Crowe a number of times that the people at the hospital would eventually be able to tell him exactly what caused the boy’s death and asked Crowe there was anything that happened that could’ve lead to the boy’s death.

Yesterday in court, Crown Prosecutor Jennifer Claxton-Viczo said a pathologist reported it was trauma to the head that caused the boy's death.

rpilon@panow.com