Mom died day after class `joke'

[Fred Derf Veteran]

Mom died day after class `joke'

Student asked about death, trial told

She and sister face murder charge

Dec. 1, 2005. 01:00 AM

BOB MITCHELL

STAFF REPORTER

A week before the end of semester, some Mississauga students kidded with a teacher about how they could get out of handing in their final assignment.

"Do we have to hand it in if we break a leg?" asked one, prompting laughter from the 20 or so classmates.

Another student asked: "What if we have the chicken pox?" Another piped up: "What if we get into a car accident?"

The teacher told her students she hoped none of those things happened and they would all be expected to complete their final assignment for their careers class instead of writing an exam.

But then a 15-year-old girl raised her hand: "What if somebody close to me or close to you dies?" she asked.

"I was taken back," the teacher testified yesterday, recalling the exchange on Friday, Jan. 17, 2003. "The whole class was. They looked at me. The laughter stopped. The questions stopped."

The next night, the student's 44-year-old mother drowned in her bathtub at home.

"When I learned about the death on the Monday, in my mind, I thought, wow, that is really strange that she said that," the teacher told the court.

Just over a year later, on Jan. 21, 2004, the teen and her older sister were charged with killing their mother after Peel police received information suggesting the death wasn't an accident.

The teens, now 18 and 19, have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in what legal experts say is the first case in Canada where such young girls are accused of killing their mother.

The Crown alleges the girls, 15 and 16 at the time, plotted their alcoholic mother's death and then drowned her after getting her drunk and nearly unconscious with Tylenol pills.

Internet conversations and secretly recorded communications entered as evidence suggested the girls killed their mother because her alcoholism and pill popping was ruining their lives and because they stood to inherit their share of a $200,000 life insurance policy.

The teens' identities are protected by law, as are the identities of all civilian witnesses and the victim, whose death initially was ruled an accidental drowning due to high levels of alcohol.

The teacher told the court she went to police with the information about the younger sister's classroom comments when she learned of the girls' arrests.

"It (the arrests) hit me like a ton of bricks," she said.

The teacher said she noticed a marked difference in the student about three months into the 2002-03 school year.

"She was an extremely intelligent student ... who always did her assignments," said the teacher, who worked as a guidance counsellor. "But then she started to change in November.

"She started missing and skipping classes. Her appearance totally changed. She cut her hair short, spiked and dyed it different colours. One day it was blue, the next day it was red."

Court previously heard both sisters underwent dramatic personality and appearance changes in the months before and after their mother's death.

The teacher and the school's vice-principal met with the teen on Jan. 15, 2003, to stress the importance of attending class and finishing assignments. The teacher said she had unsuccessfully tried to phone her mother at home and at her workplace.

Under cross-examination by Eugene Bhattacharya, who represents the younger sister, the teacher admitted the students' questions in class were part of a sequence of jokes to "test" her but denied the accused teen's question seemed like a joke.

Court also heard the teacher was among those who supported the girls during their bail hearing in February 2004.

"At the time you said you didn't think the girls posed a threat to the public? ... Was that true?" Bhattacharya asked.

"Yes," she replied.

"Do you still think that today?" Bhattacharya asked.

"Yes," she said.

The trial continues today.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...ol=969483202845

[BroChaos Veteran]

wow, that is crazy and shocking. it's a shame their mom had to be like that though.

[Lee G. Veteran]

That's awful :|

[webeagle12]

anybody want to tell me wtf is wrong with new generation of kids, it looks like 95% getting dumb

[remix17]

Well I haven't met the drunken mother so I can't judge. Still sounds kinda sick, killing your own mother and all.

[y0sh]

If you take away life from the person who gave you life, then you're not worthy of life yourself.

[nvez]

What the hell is wrong with them? Their parents did 15 years of growing him/her up, and after 15 years, all they get is... death?

[Allan]

I can persoanlly understand the girls feelings of an acoholic mother as my stepdad was one, and I kept wishing him dead... but Id not do it.

BUT Again, that dosn't give them right to kill him! Golly gee willicurs!

[em_te]

If you take away life from the person who gave you life, then you're not worthy of life yourself.

What if you did it in a roundabout way? Like you report to the police that your life-giver was abusing you and the police take them away for execution. Would you still be unworthy of life? Or does it have to involve you physically taking away the life of your abuser?

[NeoXY]

for...a....freakin assigment?....

wow...:omg:

[+Warwagon MVC]

:shiftyninja:

[DanManIt]

That's ****ed up.

[Napalm Frog]

What shool is it at? If it's Streetsville I may know the people... (Out of the gossip loop since I am in Ottawa now).

[deuz]

WTF!!! :no: :no:

[Chris Allen Veteran]

That is pretty wild. Crazy canucks.

[Prometheus]

wow thats really sick....hmmmmmmm

[+Warwagon MVC]

ya but in the end its hard to denighing that she acomplshed her goal"

[Smigit]

anybody want to tell me wtf is wrong with new generation of kids, it looks like 95% getting dumb

Dont pretend this sort of thing hasnt always happened. It's not like its happening in every town on a daily basis, you get a sick story once in a while and you accuse todays younger generation of being "dumb" and their being something wrong with us. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but its your generation that is sending troops into Iraq over apparent Nuclear Missiles, that is struggling against or for terrorist and generally setting the path my generation is now moving into. And before that there was the gulf war, Vietnam, WW2 ect. And they are only the wars, theres hundreds of smaller examples where atrocities have been commited in the past 100 years and beyond.

I mean seriously, dont act like one generation is better than another. Every single one has commited atrocities. Yes, its the very small minority that are doing anything wrong, the one in a million or hundred thousand or anything, but it would be very easy for me to say "what is wrong with my prior generation, look at the world they have left me to live in"

Being 19 I'm kind of sick of hearing how our generation is so off the rail when really none before us have been any better and looking over history many have done alot worse. I'm not defending what has happened, but throwing out stereotypes like that is grosely incorrect and insulting to the general population that go by their daily life in the exact same manner anyone else does. Yes, what these kids have done (if they did do it at all), is sick. It's extremly upsetting but its also upsetting that their mother didnt do a better job at raising the kids and controlling her addiction. She certainly deffinetly didnt deserve to die, its just sad to hear stories of families like this.

I really do hope that the girls are in fact innocent, although I really dont believe they are unfortunatly.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

Update:

Mother alive hours after 'drowning,' neighbour says

Woman asked for cigarettes, alcohol several hours after prosecutors say she was killed

Dec. 5, 2005. 02:44 PM

BOB MITCHELL

STAFF REPORTER

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 today.

In a stunning development in the opening day of the defence?s case at this sensational murder trial, the deceased woman?s neighbour said he spoke with her about 9 p.m. on Jan. 18, 2003.

?She asked me for a couple of cigarettes and if I had any booze,? the 46-year-old man testified today at the trial, now in its sixth week.

The testimony of the first defence witness dramatically contradicts evidence presented by crown prosecutors Mike Cantlon and Brian McGuire who allege the woman?s teenage daughters, then 16 and 15, drowned their mother in the bathtub at about 6 p.m. that night.

It also contradicts previous pathology evidence suggesting the first stages of rigor mortis had set in when the emergency personnel pulled the woman?s lifeless body from the bathtub at about 10:30 p.m. that night.

Court previously heard that rigor mortis generally begins to appear between four to six hours after death.

The sisters, now 19 and 18, have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in a case legal experts say is the first in Canada where such young girls are accused of murdering their mother.

On the stand, the neighbour said the woman appeared drunk when she knocked on his door the night of her death, asking him for cigarettes and booze.

?Her speech was slurred,? he said. ?She was leaning against the wall.? He said he wasn?t surprised to see her in that state because she was ?drunk 98 per cent of the time? when he saw her.

The neighbour said he went out but returned about 1 ? hours later and was standing in the driveway smoking a cigarette when the two sisters got out of a car that had pulled into their driveway.

They told him they had been at Jack Astor?s and one of them offered him a hamburger they hadn?t eaten but he declined their invitation.

A few minutes later, he said he looked out the window of his townhome and saw the girls being led into unmarked police cars. He said the next day the complex?s superintendent told him the girls' mother had ?killed herself.?

The sisters were charged almost a year later when Peel police discovered new information suggesting their mother had been murdered and didn?t accidentally drown because of heavy alcohol consumption, as initially ruled as the cause of death by a coroner.

The crown contends the sisters plotted their mother?s death and drowned her after getting her drunk and nearly unconscious with Tylenol 3 pills.

Their identities are protected by law, as are the identities of all civilian witnesses and the deceased women, who had five times the legal limit of alcohol and overdose levels of codeine in her system when she died.

Internet conversations and secretly-recorded communications entered as evidence have suggested the sisters killed their mother because her alcoholism and pill popping was ruining their lives and the life of their six-year-old stepbrother.

They also stood to inherit their share of their mother?s $200,000 life insurance policy - funds they were going to use to buy drugs and take their friends on a European vacation.

Five crown witnesses have testified they either knew about the alleged murder plot before or after the crime had been committed and that the dinner at Jack Astor?s was to play a crucial role in their alibi.

The judge-alone trial before Justice Bruce Duncan continues tomorrow.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...ol=968793972154

[+Warwagon MVC]

Boo!

[ph3412t3h13]

what in the hell... is she like a freaking zombie???

a woman gets drowned, then gets revived hours later and walks around looking for cigarettes and booze

reminds me of kill bill 2

[funnyperson1]

anybody want to tell me wtf is wrong with new generation of kids, it looks like 95% getting dumb

I'll give you a hint, its a result of ****** parents like this one. If you do your job as a parent your child should grow up to be a productive citizen.

[Mystical112]

suaga eh... dyam...

[qdave]

very sad :(

[Deathray]

That update is... wow... This will be an interesting case, yikes :s