Quebec appeals court orders new trial for woman accused of killing daughters

The Court of Appeal has ordered a third trial for a Quebec woman who has twice been convicted of killing her daughters.

Adele Sorella had appealed a 2019 conviction by a jury on two counts of second-degree murder for which she was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for 10 years.

In 2013, she was convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of her daughters, but that ruling was overturned on appeal in 2017.

In a ruling on Monday, the high court overturned the most recent verdict because of the trial judge's refusal to accept an argument that organized crime could have played a part in the deaths.

The two girls, nine-year-old Amanda and eight-year-old Sabrina, were found dead in their playroom on March 31, 2009. Their bodies bore no signs of violence and the cause of their death has never been determined.

The bodies of nine-year-old Amanda and eight-year-old Sabrina were found in the home of their mother, Adele Sorella, in March 2009.

Her husband and the girls' father was Giuseppe De Vito, a man with ties to organized crime who died in prison in 2013 after being poisoned.

Sorella had been granted bail in July 2020 while awaiting the outcome of her appeal.

A new trial, this time for second-degree murder, would be a third for Sorella, who has pleaded not guilty due to a mental disorder.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 21, 2022.