A person acting as their own lawyer in a jury trial at the Longueuil courthouse, where they are charged with murdering their wife and two sons inside the family’s condominium, surprised everyone Monday afternoon by revealing their theory of the case while cross-examining a witness on Monday.
Mohamad Al Ballouz, a 38-year-old who now identifies as a woman, revealed her hypothesis while posing questions to Maria Fiorello, an expert in DNA and blood stain patterns who was called as a witness for the prosecution. While answering questions from a prosecutor for most of the day, Fiorello said traces of Al Ballouz’s blood were found in many parts of the family’s condominium in Brossard after firefighters burst into their home while responding to an alarm.
When it came time to cross-examine the witness, Al Ballouz first repeated the Crown’s theory of the case: that Al Ballouz killed her wife, Synthia Bussières, by stabbing her repeatedly and then killed their two sons, Zac, 2, and Eliam, 5, in a way that left no signs of violence on the boys and then set a fire inside the condominium.
Throughout the trial, Al Ballouz has had to ask all her questions from inside a prisoner’s dock inside the courtroom. She reminded the jury that Fiorello’s qualities as an expert witness were not called into question by her. Al Ballouz then revealed “the defence’s theory” of the case.
“If I submit to you that Synthia Bussières killed the two children and then tried to kill the accused, are you able to give your expert opinion” on the sequence in which the blood stains occurred? Al Ballouz asked.
The witness replied with a blunt: “No.”
Traces of Mohamad Al Ballouz’s blood were found all over the condominium where she is alleged to have murdered her wife and their two children two years ago.
Al Ballouz is charged with the second-degree murder of Bussières and the first-degree murders of their two sons. The victims were killed the night of Sept. 24, 2022.
While testifying Monday morning, Fiorello, a crime scene expert with 20 years of experience who has testified in nearly 40 trials across Quebec, told the jury that traces of what turned out to be Al Ballouz’s blood were found in several parts of the apartment on the 12th floor of the residential building on St-Laurent Blvd. in Brossard.
Traces of the accused’s blood were found on the handle of the front door to the apartment, in the main hallway, on part of the condo’s balcony, a beer bottle, a set of car keys, on a toilet seat, inside the shower, the walls of the children’s bedroom, on the button to start a washing machine, on the handle of a mop and on a box of white kitchen garbage bags.
“The mop was still wet, so it appears it was used to clean up blood,” Fiorello said, adding later that blood stains found in the bathroom sink and the shower indicated someone was washing blood away.
In a few of the stains, Fiorello found that Bussières’s blood was mixed with Al Ballouz’s.
Bussières was stabbed 23 times, but there were no signs of violence found on the bodies of the two boys. Firefighters discovered the bodies after an alarm went off. When they entered, they found Al Ballouz lying on a bed in between her two sons. Bussières’s body was found in the bathroom.
Fiorello also said blood stains were found on the bases of two smoke detectors in the apartment. The actual smoke detectors had been removed and were found along with two others in a bedroom, at the base of a bed amid several other objects that had been set on fire.
Traces of Bussières’s blood were also found at some of the same locations as Al Ballouz’s, Fiorello told the jury.
The next witness to testify was Yann Pazé, a pathologist who did the autopsies on all three of the bodies.
He said there were no signs of violence on the bodies of the two boys and that he could not determine the cause of their deaths.
Pazé also said there were no burns left on the bodies of Al Ballouz’s sons and it appeared they died before the fire inside the condomium was set.
“There are certain types of violent death that no leave no trace at the autopsy,” Pazé said, adding that he could only offer theories to try to explain how the boys were killed.
He noted that death by drowning would be one theory. Witnesses who testified in different parts of the trial said there was water found all over the condominium when the bodies were discovered. Also, one of Al Ballouz’s neighbours said she could see water pouring off the balcony of the family’s condominium after she exited the building because of the fire alarm.
Pazé said that, besides the 23 stab wounds left on Bussières’s body, he also found superficial burns on the victim.
“They weren’t serious. They were superficial,” Pazé said of the burns, adding they were not the cause of the woman’s death.
“It is reasonable to conclude Mrs. Bussières was dead when the fire started,” the pathologist said, explaining there was no smoke found in her lungs.
What did cause the woman’s death, Pazé concluded, were the stab wounds that damaged the blood vessels in her neck. He also said that, based on a comparison of the rigidity of the bodies, it was “logical to conclude” that Bussières was killed before her sons were.