Jury hears physical altercation leads to death at manslaughter trial

The manslaughter trial jury heard a London Police Service interview with the accused, which was recorded just hours after the victim Elzbieta Cabala, 59, died in her townhouse on Wilkins Street on July 7, 2021.

The woman’s daughter Barbara, now 43, can be seen telling Const. Blair Gould that the pair didn’t always get along after moving back in together. She told the officer that a verbal altercation turned physical that night, “We ended up on the floor...I was just defending myself like, ‘What are you doing?”’

Barbara Cabala said that during the fight, she blacked out a couple of times, “The first time was when she hit me with the pot.”

Gould asked her why she simply didn’t leave the townhouse that she shared with her mother, “Was she preventing you from leaving?”

The accused responded, “No, no…I had nowhere to go.”

When she called 911, Cabala told the operator her mother wasn’t breathing. Emergency crews would eventually arrive at the scene to find both women inside the townhouse.

The jury has heard that Elzbieta died from external neck compression and that she suffered more than 55 injuries.

Barbara would be treated in hospital for her injuries and later be charged with manslaughter. She has pleaded not guilty.

Later in the interview, Cabala said of her mother, “I can’t believe she’s not here...right now I’m in shock to what happened to her.”

The trial now into its second week resumes on Friday.