‘I blame myself’: Sorella trial hears from slain girls’ father

After weeks of hearing his name mentioned in testimony from police officers and family members, the jury in Adele Sorella’s murder trial finally heard from her husband, Giuseppe De Vito, on Wednesday. De Vito, 46, died from cyanide poisoning in 2013 while serving a 15-year sentence in a maximum-security prison. But the jury was played a recording of testimony De Vito gave during previous court proceedings in the case. “I blame myself, I guess, yes,” De Vito answered when a prosecutor asked if he had anything to do with his daughters’ deaths. “I could have been there. Maybe I could have done something to help, I don’t know. Like any other father, I guess.” Sorella, 52, is accused of murdering her and De Vito’s two daughters, Amanda, 9, and Sabrina, 8, at the family’s home on March 31, 2009. Her trial is now in its fourth week at the Laval courthouse. The jury has heard how Sorella became suicidal and paranoid when De Vito went on the lam after being targeted in Project Colisée, a lengthy police investigation into organized crime. De Vito sounded uncomfortable in the recording played Wednesday, answering most questions in short and hesitant sentences. His testimony, given in 2013, lasted no longer than five minutes. “What happened in 2006?” the prosecutor asked him at one point. “Well,” De Vito answered, “something happened with, we got accused for something in Colisée, big operation, a vast operation.” De Vito then confirmed he went into hiding in Montreal and Toronto until his arrest in 2010. He said he spoke with his children “once or twice” on the phone while on the run and saw them at the house in Laval “maybe once.” He said he spoke to Sorella at that same time. He never spoke with her after she was arrested and charged with killing their daughters, he said. A cause of death is yet to be established during the trial. When the girls were found dead, side by side in the family’s playroom, there were no obvious signs of violence on their bodies. The Crown intends to prove Sorella had the “exclusive opportunity” to kill her daughters. On Wednesday, the jury was also played recorded testimony from De Vito’s mother, Giovanna Palgiuca. Much of her recorded cross-examination from the defence focused on any spare keys Sorella would have given family members. Palgiuca confirmed she only had one set of keys to the house in Laval. When asked if it would be fair to say Sorella often lost her keys, she answered: “yes, on a few occasions.” Jurors later heard from Éric Hudon, a forensic firearms and tool mark examiner who analyzed four sets of locks seized as evidence from the house. The locks came from the main entrance, the patio door and a door to the garage. Hudon passed a small hook and pick to the jury, explaining different ways someone could open a lock without having the key. While analyzing the locks through a magnifying glass for signs of tampering, he explained, he looked for any dents, scratches or scuff marks. “Your conclusions?” Crown prosecutor Nektarios Tzortzinas asked. “I didn’t observe any markings that could correspond with (lock-picking),” Hudon answered. But in cross-examination, defence lawyer Pierre Poupart asked if it would be possible for someone with a lot of experience to pick a lock so quickly that it wouldn’t leave any marks behind. “Yes,” Hudon answered. “It’s possible.”