Murder trial jury views photos of dead girls’ bodies

One of the first things Éric Coïa could see when he entered Adele Sorella’s home was a small pair of pink winter boots in the entrance hall, next to a large granite statue. On the ground nearby were two school bags decorated with floral patterns. On benches above them were two children’s coats, pink and red. Coïa, then a crime scene technician with the Laval police, continued making his way through the lavishly decorated house, photographing everything that caught his eye. On the kitchen’s marble counters he found two packed boxed lunches, one holding a sandwich, an apple and a chocolate chip cookie. But the reason he was called to document the house was in the family’s playroom. During the second day of Sorella’s murder trial Tuesday, Coïa showed the jury photos he took of her two daughters, Amanda, 9, and Sabrina, 8, as they were when he entered on March 31, 2009. The photos showed the girls on their backs, arms by their sides, on blue foam play mats in the middle of the room. They were still wearing their school uniform pants, but their tops had been opened by Urgences-Santé ambulance technicians during attempts to revive them. There was bruising on their wrists and hands. Traces of what looked like blood left dark stains near their mouths. Sorella, who has pleaded not guilty to two first-degree murder charges, sat motionless as the photos were displayed on screens throughout the courtroom. When members of the jury appeared upset from the photos, Superior Court Justice Sophie Bourque acknowledged they were difficult to view but asked jurors to use what she described as the “shield principle” — to focus on the core of the photos, not the gore. “Focus on why you’re looking at them, not what you’re looking at,” she explained. Bourque also informed the jurors that any bodily substances visible were a result of resuscitation attempts and not related to the cause of death, which is yet to be established during the trial. Coïa’s testimony — he presented hundreds of photos, explaining most in detail — lasted all of Tuesday. Since retired, Coïa had documented the house from the outside and inside, at night and in daylight. In his 26 years of police work, he said during cross-examination, he had never seen another home equipped with as many security cameras. As the trial opened Monday, the Crown said it intends to prove Sorella had the “exclusive opportunity” to kill her two daughters. Leading to the deaths, Crown prosecutor Nektarios Tzortzinas explained, Sorella’s husband, Giuseppe De Vito, was on the run following Project Colisée, a lengthy police investigation targeting organized crime. Sorella had been struggling and attempted to kill herself on several occasions. She was arrested when she was involved in a car crash in the middle of the night after the bodies were discovered. Though the two girls’ cause of death wasn’t evident when their bodies were found, Tzortzinas told the jury, the “simultaneous and unexpected” death of two healthy sisters made it clear they hadn’t died from natural causes. “Inside the house was a hyperbaric chamber that was used to treat Sabrina, who suffered from juvenile arthritis,” Tzortzinas said. “This chamber was seized by police and analyzed by experts who will come share their work and conclusions.” On Tuesday, the jury was shown several photos Coïa took of the chamber and the system of pumps attached to it. It was found in a room on the house’s second storey, next to the two girls’ respective bedrooms. The trial continues Wednesday.