Mom alive after ‘death,’ court told

Crown alleges woman drowned about 6 p.m. Neighbour spoke with her at 9 p.m., he testifies

A Mississauga woman who drowned in her bathtub was alive at least two to three hours after her daughters are alleged to have murdered her, a Brampton court heard yesterday. The testimony by the woman’s neighbour flies in the face of five weeks of Crown evidence that suggested the teenagers drowned their mother after plotting her death for weeks and then met friends at a Jack Astor’s restaurant as part of a prearranged alibi that included a well- rehearsed 911 call.

In the opening day of the defence’s case at this murder trial, the deceased woman’s longtime neighbour testified that he spoke with the 44-year- old woman about 9 p. m. on Jan. 18, 2003. Crown prosecutors Mike Cantlon and Brian McGuire allege her daughters, then 16 and 15, drowned their mother about 6 p. m. after getting her drunk and nearly unconscious with Tylenol 3 pills in the afternoon. The sisters, now 19 and 18, have pleaded not guilty to first- degree murder.

Their identities are protected by law, as are the identities of all civilian witnesses and the deceased woman. The neighbour testified that the mother of three was still alive, although very drunk, at least three hours after she was supposed to have been murdered by her daughters.

“ She asked me for a couple of cigarettes and if I had any booze,” the 46-year-old man told the court. The neighbour’s evidence not only contradicts the Crown’s theory, it also goes against pathology evidence that suggests rigor mortis had already begun to set in when the woman was pulled from the bathtub at about 10: 30 p. m.

Court previously heard that rigor mortis generally begins to appear between four to six hours after death. The neighbour, who, according to his testimony, has criminal convictions involving theft, possession of stolen property, dangerous driving and drug possession, said the woman appeared drunk when she knocked on his door the night of her death. She asked him for cigarettes and booze.

“ Her speech was slurred,” he said, telling the court he saw her from an upstairs kitchen window.

“ She was leaning against the wall. . . . She couldn’t stand up very well.” He said he “ assumed she was drunk” because she was “ drunk 98 per cent of the time” when he saw her. He said he opened the window and threw two cigarettes down to her.

“ She left and that was the last I ever saw of her,” he said. The Mississauga man said he went out to a nearby coffee shop but returned about 11⁄ hours later and was standing in the driveway smoking a cigarette at about 10: 30 p. m. when the two sisters got out of a car that had pulled into their driveway. He said they told him they had been at Jack Astor’s and the older sister asked him if he wanted a hamburger that hadn’t been eaten, but he declined. He said he told her to “give it to her mom,” but the older sister told him “she wouldn’t appreciate it.” He said the girls “ seemed happy” because they were “teenagers having fun” having been out “for the night with their friends.” A few minutes later after going inside, he said he looked out the window and saw the girls being led into two unmarked police cruisers. The Mississauga man said the complex’s superintendent told him the next day that the girl’s mother had “ killed herself.”

Earlier on the stand, he told the court he drank with the deceased woman about once a month. The trial continues today.