The accused had developed a “feeling of aversion” for the girl, said the crown attorney in his argument delivered Tuesday to the 14 members of the jury.
It was a highly anticipated moment at the Trois-Rivières courthouse, where the trial of the mother-in-law of the “Granby girl”, accused of forcible confinement and murder, is taking place. Crown Attorney Me Jean-Sébastien Bussières, detailed to the jury why she should be found guilty.
The Crown theory is that the 38-year-old woman wrapped duct tape around the 7-year-old girl on the morning of April 29, 2019, and her death resulted.
The accused maintains that she had put sticky paper around the child who was in crisis, to prevent her from injuring herself and again succeeding in exiting her room through the window.
Is this a credible testimony or is it “sewn with a white thread? “Asked Me Bussières.
To support her theory that the accused had developed animosity towards the girl, the lawyer read aloud texts that she sent during the year before her death, including the one here, dated March 15, 2019:
“I am not able to look at her. “
His interlocutor then asks him, also by text message: “What’s going on?” “
” Nothing. Just his face discourages me, ”replies the accused.
She will also write: “she has a habit of marde (sic)” and “frais-shit” and “she pisses me off”. And even, barely a few days before her death: “She lifts my heart”.
Me Bussières punctuates his reading with: “I remind you that […] is 7 years old ”.
And he will launch to the jurors: “Ask yourself if it is true when she says she loves him”.
He explains that their analysis is important in order to fully understand the “state of mind” of the woman that day: “Ask yourself if you believe [l’accusée] when she tells you she wanted to protect [la victime] by adding more tape on the morning of the 29th, or is that not rather part of a continuum of animosity that has lived in her for so long? “
The two expert witnesses who testified agree on one thing: if it hadn’t been for the duct tape on his body, the child would still be alive, argued the crown prosecutor.
And since the accused argued – in tears – that she had never imagined that the duct tape could kill the girl, Me Bussières also asked jurors to question the real consequences of trying to immobilize a child in this way.
“To affix layers of removal tape – not the little scotch tape, there – over the head, the hair, in front of the face: does that constitute a danger likely to cause the death of a child?” He asked them, using their common sense.
Me Bussières will continue his argument on Tuesday afternoon.