LAVAL, Que. — When her two daughters were found dead in the family playroom on March 31, 2009, dressed in their school uniforms, Adele Sorella was going through a difficult time, a jury heard Monday.
Her husband Giuseppe De Vito was "on the run" following a 2006 police operation targeting organized crime, and she had tried to end her own life more than once, Crown prosecutor Nektarios Tzortzinas said in his opening statement at Sorella's murder trial.
"Even though the exact cause of their deaths remains undetermined, the simultaneous and unexpected death of two sisters in good health rules out any evidence of a death from natural causes," Tzortzinas said.
"Our theory is that the accused Adele Sorella had the exclusive opportunity to commit the murder of her daughters, Amanda and Sabrina De Vito."
The prosecutor said Sorella's mother had moved in with her after the first suicide attempt to help care for the two girls.
The day the girls died, Sorella's mother left the house at around 9 a.m. after looking after the dog, making breakfast and getting the girls ready for school. She was supposed to meet her daughter later in the morning, but Sorella never showed up, Tzortzinas said.
Instead, Sorella's brother got a call from his sister that made him worried enough to go to the home, where he found the lifeless bodies of his nieces. "Ms. Sorella was nowhere to be found," Tzortzinas said. She was arrested that night following a car accident.
The opening statement is not evidence at the trial but an outline of what the prosecution intends to prove during the trial, which is scheduled to last three months.
Sorella, 52, had drawn features as she sat next to her lawyers in the courtroom. In a soft voice, she pleaded not guilty as the charges of first-degree murder in the deaths of Amanda, 9, and Sabrina, 8 were read out.
Justice Sophie Bourque of Quebec Superior Court advised the jury of six men and six women they must consider all the evidence before reaching a verdict.
"You have to keep an open mind and listen to the evidence without prejudice and without sympathy," she said.
