The third trial was a good one for the wife of a mafioso accused of the murders of her two daughters: she has just been acquitted by a judge who could not rule out that the murders were instead committed by the mafia.
• Read also: “She had the exclusive opportunity”: the Crown intends to demonstrate that Adèle Sorella killed her two children before attempting suicide
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“It is indisputable that she had the opportunity to kill her children […]. But the evidence [de la Couronne] do not have sufficient weight [pour justifier une culpabilité] “, declared Judge Myriam Lachance this Monday at the Laval courthouse.
Sitting in the courtroom, Adèle Sorella let out a huge sigh of relief, while a relative sitting nearby began to applaud before being told to stop by a special constable. Because after 14 years of legal proceedings, the wife of the late mafioso Giuseppe De Vito was this time acquitted of the second degree murders of her children.
The death of Amanda and Sabrina De Vito, aged 9 and 8, occurred on March 31, 2009 while their father was on the run following a large anti-mafia raid. Sorella, for her part, suffered from severe depression and feared for her daughters’ safety.
“All the witnesses reported that she was a loving and attentive mother,” noted the judge.
Hyperbaric chamber
However, on the day of the tragedy, Sorella had left her home. Then, later, she asked two family members to come to her home, but insisted that the children’s grandmother not be there. When they arrived, they discovered the bodies of the two girls, side by side on the floor of the games room. They showed no signs of violence.
Sorella was arrested several hours later after crashing into a roadside pole while driving her car.
For the Crown, everything pointed to the murder theory. Because if the autopsies had not established the cause of death, only Sorella could have committed the crimes, she argued, affirming that Sorella then attempted suicide by car.
As for the cause of death, the prosecution claimed that the children had been killed in a hyperbaric chamber at the home, and that only Sorella could have placed them there.
Not convincing
This theory, however, was not enough to convince the judge “beyond a reasonable doubt”.
This is because according to an expert, it would have taken 1h30 for the children to die in the hyperbaric chamber. However, the children had not been drugged, and the room could be opened from the inside.
As for the car collision, it was an accident, the judge ruled
“She would never have been able to calculate how she would have gotten into the post,” an expert said during the legal proceedings.
Mafia
The defense, for its part, argued that it could not be ruled out that the children were killed by a member of the mafia. Several elements supported this thesis, which was considered possible by the magistrate.
This is because in the days preceding the murders, the recording module of a home surveillance system had been removed. Then, during the analysis of the crime scene, technicians found a trace of a sole, but without examining it.
These elements led the judge to conclude that it was possible that a third party had committed the crimes.
“There is a reasonable doubt,” concluded the judge, acquitting the accused.
It should be noted that this trial took place without hearing witnesses, and without a jury. Instead, the judge re-listened to the 48 testimonies and analyzed the 76 exhibits filed during the previous trials.
Adèle Sorella was represented by Mes Pierre and Guy Poupart, in addition to Me Alexandra Boulanger. My Marie-Claude Bourassa and Alexis Marcotte-Boulanger officiated for the Crown. They did not comment on the verdict, but said they put their thoughts with the two children killed more than 14 years ago.
What Judge Myriam Lachance said:
“One of the particularities of this case lies in the impossibility of establishing the cause of death. The result is a ‘blank’ autopsy. »
“The accused suffers from amnesia and cannot testify about her day of March 31, 2009 after her mother left at 9 a.m., but she denies having been capable of carrying out fatal actions against her two children who she loved more than anything. »
“ [Des proches d’Adèle Sorella] testified that the accused feared for the safety of her children after her husband left. She became suspicious and paranoid. »
“To kill the children, they would have had to be placed together in the hyperbaric chamber for at least 1.5 hours. Such a theory assumes that they did not struggle or in any way attempt to escape. […] when it was possible. »
“The opportunity [de commettre les meurtres] cannot alone demonstrate the guilt of the accused. It must be combined with other incriminating evidence. »
“The thesis of an unidentified member linked to organized crime [qui aurait commis le crime]affects the general thesis of the prosecution, namely that Ms. Sorella is the author of the [meurtres]. »
A long legal saga
November 22, 2006: The police launch Operation Colisée aimed at destroying the Montreal mafia. Giuseppe De Vito, Adèle Sorella’s husband, goes on the run.
March 31, 2009: The couple’s daughters, Amanda and Sabrina, 9 and 8 years old, were found dead in the family home. Adèle Sorella is arrested a few hours later and is accused of murder.
October 5, 2010: Giuseppe De Vito is arrested in Montreal
June 24, 2013: Adèle Sorella is found guilty after a first trial. Two weeks later, Giuseppe De Vito was murdered with cyanide in his penitentiary cell.
December 4, 2017: The Court of Appeal orders a new trial for Adèle Sorella, due to errors in the judge’s instructions to the jury.
March 5, 2019: At the end of her second trial, a jury finds Adèle Sorella guilty of second-degree murder.
March 21, 2022: The Court of Appeal again orders a new trial, among other things because Sorella had not been able to put forward the thesis that the murders could have been committed by the mafia
September 13, 2023: The third trial begins, with the judge who re-listened to 48 testimonies and analyzed 76 documents filed during previous hearings
December 18, 2023: In a 70-page decision, judge Myriam Lachance acquits Adèle Sorella.