The evidence is closed in the criminal trial of the mother-in-law of the Granby girl: the 14 jurors heard all the testimony, saw all the photos and looked at all the documents that the Crown and the defense saw fit to show them.
The next step for them is to listen to the pleadings of the prosecutors to sort it out. Next Monday, the accused’s lawyer, Me Alexandre Biron, will try to convince the jury to declare her “not guilty”. It will then be up to the Crown prosecutor to offer his arguments, then to Judge Louis Dionne of the Superior Court to give them his instructions to render a verdict.
“Afterwards, it might be a good idea to have a small suitcase ready,” the magistrate told them. The jurors will be in confinement at the hotel during their deliberations.
The 38-year-old woman is accused of kidnapping and murdering the 7-year-old girl.
She has pleaded not guilty and has been detained since her arrest on April 29, 2019, the same day the girl was found unconscious on her bedroom floor. She died the next day in the hospital.
According to the Crown, the accused wrapped the child in duct tape, which caused her death.
The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on the child’s small body came to the conclusion that the most likely cause of his death was suffocation, because the sticky paper that was said to have been placed on his nose and mouth would have deprived her of oxygen that day.
She was contradicted by the forensic pathology consultant who testified for the defense: she for her part retained a combination of two causes, namely hyperthermia – an abnormal warming of her body caused by the adhesive tape – and suffocation by the tape that encircled his chest, preventing him from making the movements necessary for breathing.
The two expert witnesses, however, agree on one thing: No matter what mechanism was involved, it was the duct tape that killed the girl.