A woman from Montreal’s south shore has been found guilty on all charges in the 2022 deaths of her wife and their two young children.
The jury rendered a verdict Monday at the Longueuil, Que., courthouse in the triple murder trial of 38-year-old Levana Ballouz. She was facing life in prison without parole for at least 25 years.
The accused was charged with the second-degree murder of her spouse Synthia Bussières, 38, and with the first-degree murders of their two sons, five-year-old Eliam and two-year-old Zac.
Ballouz, who was a man at the time of the crime but now identifies as a woman, was arrested in Brossard in September 2022.
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Quebec’s Crown prosecutors’ office alleged Ballouz stabbed her wife more than 20 times and suffocated their two sons before trying to kill herself.
Ballouz waived her right to a lawyer and chose to defend herself throughout the proceedings She alleged that Bussières killed the children and then tried to kill her when she arrived at the apartment. Ballouz also claimed her wife died in the confrontation.
The trial lasted a bit more than a month, with Ballouz making her final pitch to the jury last week during closing arguments.
Quebec Superior Court Justice Éric Downs then read his instructions to the jury for most of the day Saturday before sending them to deliberate. Jury members asked for clarification regarding the testimonies’ of two witnesses the following day.
— with files from Global’s Phil Carpenter
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