Never two without three. Nine years after her first trial, Adèle Sorella will be tried a third time for the murder of her daughters, who died in mysterious circumstances in 2009 in Laval. The Quebec Court of Appeal overturned his guilty verdict on Monday because of the judge’s refusal to consider the thesis of the involvement of organized crime in the murders.
Posted at 4:07 p.m.
At the end of her second trial in 2019, Adèle Sorella was found guilty of the second degree murder of her daughters, then sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 10 years. This second trial was necessary following the cancellation of her first trial for errors of law, at the end of which she had been found guilty of premeditated murder.
The deaths of 9-year-old Amanda De Vito and 8-year-old Sabrina De Vito continue to mystify, 13 years later. The two girls were found dead in the playroom of the Laval family residence. Their bodies showed no trace of violence. Moreover, the cause of their death has never been determined with certainty.
According to the Crown, Adèle Sorella murdered her daughters by asphyxiating them in a hyperbaric chamber, a device used to treat health problems. Note that the Lavalloise is known to have been the wife of the mafioso Giuseppe De Vito, who died poisoned with cyanide in prison in 2013.
The role played by De Vito within organized crime – he was a leading head – is also decisive in this decision of the Court of Appeal. Thus, Judge Sophie Bourque of the Superior Court erred in refusing Adèle Sorella to plead the thesis of the involvement of organized crime in the murder of the young victims, considers the highest court in the province.
“The purpose of the exercise is not to find out whether organized crime murdered the two young girls, but to decide whether to allow the defense to raise the argument. The judge was too demanding. The link between organized crime and Mr. De Vito as well as the very nature of organized crime was enough to make the argument put forward by the appellant plausible, and not just speculative,” concluded the Court of Appeal.
Moreover, the evening of the events, the police noted the presence of six men “of Italian origin” near the security cordon of the crime scene, explains the Court.