(Trois-Rivières) The mother-in-law of the girl from Granby underwent a tough cross-examination on Tuesday. “Why didn’t you go see [la victime] overnight ? “Why didn’t you go help him?” “You, while she is screaming, are you listening to a movie?” », Hammered the Crown attorney, Mr.e Claude Robitaille.
” I do not know what to do. For me, the situation is safe. [La victime] is having a fit. I let her do it. It’s safe. There is nothing that is going to happen. She is not going to die, ”responded the woman who is accused of second degree murder and forcible confinement. The Crown attempts to show that the accused wrapped the seven-year-old girl in duct tape to the point of causing her death.
Out of breath and tears, the 38-year-old needed a fifteen-minute break in order to pull herself together and resume her story.
During her testimony on Monday, the accused claimed that it was not she who undertook the restraint of the child during the night of April 28 to 29, 2019, but that she held the victim’s legs to a certain moment. In the morning, as the girl began to come off, she added adhesive tape, “ten laps”, around her while waiting for an appointment with the child psychiatrist scheduled for 3 pm in the afternoon.
The accused assured that the child’s respiratory tract was not blocked and that it could still move.
“You take the time to ask her if she is able to move, but you don’t take the time to ask her if she is hungry, if she wants to go to the bathroom? “Asked Me Robitaille.
“No, exactly,” replied the accused, repentant.
When the crown attorney announced he had finished his questions, the 38-year-old addressed the jury for the very last time.
” I’m sorry. Just because there were ups and downs and downs didn’t mean I didn’t like her [la victime]. I still love her and miss her. I apologize so much, ”she said before thanking the 14 jurors. She then took one last look at her family who were present for their testimony.
“I did everything for her”
In her cross-examination, the prosecutor wondered if the arrival of the victim had disturbed the family bubble of the accused and her son, in 2015. The woman replied that often she felt that she “ did not have the turn ”with the seven-year-old girl. The child was having temper tantrums, she urinated on the ground and mutilated herself to the point of bleeding and spilling her blood on the walls, according to the accused.
A month before his death, the child was expelled from school because of behavioral problems. The mother-in-law therefore found herself taking care of the victim and her five-year-old little brother full time.
Me Robitaille read a few texts, punctuated by coronations, sent by the accused about the child. “Calm all her laundry is wet.” It is soaked with urine for several days, ”she wrote in particular. The prosecutor questioned his morale, his state of fatigue since 2015.
“It’s not that I don’t like him [la victime]. I did everything for her. But I was all alone. Of course I am tired. I didn’t want to kill her because of it. There are good times when it’s easy, but there was no one around. There was no one left, ”she replied.
The woman was attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. She attended two meetings, in the morning and in the evening, on April 28, and one the day before. “It did me good to go to meetings “, did she say.
When he approached the night during which the victim was wrapped in duct tape, the prosecutor insisted on the help that the accused could have requested from the Directorate of Youth Protection, in particular. “You are someone who has been doing AA meetings for a while. You know what it’s like to get help. That night, instead of going for help, I’m trying to figure out why you went back to the Lord of the Rings? ”
” I wonder. I wonder, ”she replied, sobbing.