A woman whose dogs attacked and killed a boy who was staying at her south Edmonton home in 2024 testified in court on Friday.
Crystal Jean MacDonald, 46, is charged with criminal negligence causing death after her two Cane Corsos — Khaos and Khairo — mauled and killed 11-year-old Kache Grist on April 1, 2024. The dogs have since been euthanized.
The defence called on MacDonald, their only witness, to testify at her trial on Friday.
Court heard MacDonald had owned dogs throughout most of her adult life and had experience training multiple animals before adopting the Cane Corsos.
She testified her first dog, a pit bull she rescued at 17, gave her “a sense of unconditional love and safety against things that happened when I was young.”
MacDonald said she later took dog training courses and would later help to train roughly 10 dogs before getting Khaos and Khairo.
Court heard Khaos weighed 124 pounds while Khairo weighed 109 pounds at the time of the attack.
MacDonald testified she had never owned Cane Corsos before, but believed her prior experience with pit bulls would help her train the pair.
Adopting the dogs
Court heard MacDonald first adopted Khaos in 2022 after her mother showed her a Facebook post about the dog.
At the time, MacDonald owned an elderly pit bull that she hoped would help settle the younger dog. However, the pit bull died of old age four days after Khaos arrived.
Khairo later came to MacDonald from another owner who said the dog did not get along with a new pet in their home.
MacDonald testified that by the spring and summer of 2022, the dogs had become too destructive while playing together indoors.
She said she stopped allowing them to roughhouse inside the house and instead exercised them in empty baseball diamonds or fenced, private dog parks.
“It was my responsibility to ensure they were not gallivanting,” she testified.
Previous attacks
Earlier in the trial, the Crown had called several witnesses who described violent incidents involving the dogs before Kache’s death.
On Friday, MacDonald addressed each incident during her testimony.
Court had previously heard from Dale Shawn Hesse, whose approximately 10-pound Pomeranian died after being attacked by MacDonald’s dogs at his acreage in Sherwood Park, Alta., in July 2023.
MacDonald testified she warned Hesse multiple times about her dogs’ behaviour before the incident.
She also denied Hesse’s claim that she inserted a finger into one of her dogs’ rectums to stop the attack, saying she instead used a pressure jowl trick.
MacDonald said she found out the morning after the Pomeranian was attacked that the dog had died.
“I felt absolutely horrible,” she testified.
MacDonald said she later spoke with Hesse’s wife and offered to pay $500 a month toward expenses.
She testified she believed she had done her due diligence to the best of her capability at the time.
Attack on tenant
Court also heard MacDonald’s account of incidents involving her basement tenant, Jesse Woodruff.
MacDonald testified she met Woodruff through work and warned him about the dogs and the previous Pomeranian attack before he moved in with his cat.
She said she told him that under “no circumstances” could the dogs interact with the cat and offered to install a baby gate, though Woodruff declined.
MacDonald testified that on one occasion Woodruff brought the cat upstairs and held it near Khairo’s face while Khaos became agitated inside a kennel.
Woodruff previously testified the dogs attacked him during an incident in December 2023 while he was playing with them on the floor after drinking alcohol.
He previously told court he rolled onto his stomach to protect his head while the dogs bit and scratched him. He later received stitches and antibiotics in hospital.
MacDonald testified that was the first time Khaos and Khairo had attacked a person. She said she was also injured while helping pull the dogs off Woodruff and required stitches herself.
Following that incident, MacDonald said she decided to get a second kennel again. She said she had two kennels for Khaos and Khairo but had loaned one of them to a friend at the time of that attack. She also said she planned to have the dogs neutered and professionally trained.
She testified she booked an appointment for January 2024 to have the dogs neutered, but missed it after the death of her best friend.
A second appointment was scheduled for April 3, 2024 — two days after Kache’s death.
Woodruff also previously testified about another incident on Feb. 29, 2024, when the dogs killed his cat.
MacDonald testified she questioned why the dogs had not been in their kennel at the time, as it was her house rule to have them kennelled unless she or her other tenant were home.
February 2024 visitor attack
Court also heard testimony earlier in the trial from Tina Kelepouris, who was attacked by MacDonald’s dogs in February 2024.
MacDonald testified Kelepouris had previously watched the dogs for her once, but she did not ask her to dog-sit again after returning home to find the dogs sick and food wrappers and Epsom salts scattered throughout the house.
On Feb. 3, 2024, Kelepouris and two friends entered MacDonald’s home when MacDonald was not there. One of the friends had the door code and let the dogs out of their kennels.
MacDonald testified she was unaware anyone would be entering the house before she arrived.
She said she did not witness the attack on Kelepouris herself, and only later saw CCTV footage of what happened during a preliminary inquiry.
MacDonald tearfully testified that when she saw the video she was disgusted.
MacDonald said she believed Kelepouris was riling them up and testified she would have told her to stop had she been there.
Following that attack, MacDonald said she no longer wanted visitors at the home and began seriously exploring behavioural therapy and boot camp-style training programs for the dogs.
She testified that one trainer she contacted, who worked with military dogs, could not take the animals until later in 2024.
Kache Grist’s death
MacDonald became emotional while describing her relationship with Kache Grist, saying she had known the boy since he was a baby and that he called her “aunty.”
The boy’s father, Wesley Grist, lived in MacDonald’s home.
She testified that Wesley raised the idea of bringing Kache, who lived in British Columbia, to Edmonton during spring break.
MacDonald said by that point she had a strict no-visitors rule because of her dogs.
“I said absolutely not,” she testified.
MacDonald said she believed she made it clear Kache should not come to the home until the dogs received training.
She testified she did not know Wesley had travelled to Osoyoos, B.C., to pick up his son.
MacDonald said when Kache arrived unexpectedly, he ran through the door and hugged her.
“I was happy to see Kache, [but] I was upset that Wes wouldn’t follow my boundary of not bringing him,” she testified.
(Handout-Kendrah Wong (Mandatory Credit)/The Canadian Press)
MacDonald said she later confronted Wesley privately and repeatedly told him the dogs were never to be left alone with the boy.
Court heard Kache was expected to leave the house and head back home to Osoyoos on April 1.
MacDonald testified she kennelled her dogs before leaving for work and hugged Kache goodbye before departing.
She said she later received a phone call at work telling her Kache had died.
“I was in shock, scared, sad,” she testified.
Cross-examination
During cross-examination, MacDonald testified she never intended for Khaos and Khairo to be guard dogs and viewed them as companion animals.
She said she had researched neutering large breeds and believed it was best to wait until the dogs were around two years old.
The Crown suggested MacDonald downplayed earlier attacks when speaking to Wesley and repeatedly blamed others for incidents involving the dogs.
MacDonald denied minimizing the previous incidents.
She testified she believed the attacks could have been prevented if people followed the house rules she established.
“With the Jesse situation, I learned more than I blamed anyone,” MacDonald testified.
She said she figured if the rules were in place, nothing else would happen.
By Friday afternoon, both the Crown and the defence had completed calling witnesses.
Closing submissions are expected Tuesday.