Timeline: Adele Sorella murder trial

In March 2009, eight-year-old Sabrina and nine-year-old Amanda De Vito were killed inside the family home in Laval, a suburb north of Montreal.

The prime suspect was the girls’ mother, Adele Sorella, who allegedly suffered from depression. She was taken into police custody shortly after the girls’ bodies were found, when she was involved in a car accident near the family home.

The whereabouts of the girls’ father, Giuseppe De Vito, was, at the time, unknown. He had been in hiding since November 2006, as he was wanted by police for mafia-related drug offences.

Global News has compiled a timeline of the key moments in this dramatic and tragic story.

March 31, 2009
Sabrina, 8, and Amanda, 9, were killed inside the family’s home in Laval, a suburb north of Montreal. The cause of death was not been made public.

April 1, 2009
Adele Sorella, 44, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of her children, 9-year-old Amanda and 8-year-old Sabrina De Vito.

April 2009
Judge ordered Sorella to undergo a 30-day psychiatric evaluation at the Philippe Pinel Institute. She was found fit to stand trial.

June 23, 2010
Adele Sorella sought bail and was released. A publication ban was placed on evidence presented.

August 27, 2010
Preliminary inquiry began. The mother of Adele Sorella took the stand and offered emotional testimony.

October 5, 2010
Giuseppe DeVito, Sorella’s husband and father of two victims, was found and arrested in connection to mafia-related drug charges.

January 10, 2011
Quebec judge Paul Chevalier allowed the Crown to reopen the preliminary inquiry so that the testimony of Giuseppe DeVito, Sorella’s husband and father of two victims, could be heard.

March 29, 2011
Giuseppe DeVito was forced to testify at the hearing. His testimony lasted about 30 minutes and was protected by a publication ban.

April 5, 2012
The court was told that Adele Sorello had not yet undergone psychiatric evaluation and as a result, her trial was unlikely to start until 2013.

April 29, 2013
The trial for Adele Sorella began in Laval. She is pleading not guilty to charges in connection to the death of her two daughters.

May 6, 2013
The mother of Adele Sorella, Theresa Di Cesare, took the stand at the trial. She was the last person to see her daughter and two granddaughters before the girls died on March 31, 2009. Di Cesare testified that nothing out of the ordinary was said on morning the girls were allegedly killed.

May 8, 2013
Former prominent Mafia leader and husband of Adele Sorella, Joe DeVito testified at the murder trial of his two daughters, where he told the jury that he assumed responsibility for the girls’ deaths.

May 24, 2013
The jury was shown the police interrogation video of Adele Sorella, the Laval mother accused of killing her two children.

June 7, 2013
The defence began presenting its case in the trial of the Laval mother accused of killing her two daughters. Adele Sorella’s lawyers called an expert witness to the stand, who worked alongside police during the 2009 investigation.

June 19, 2013
Lawyers presented closing arguments at the trial.

June 21, 2013
Just hours after beginning its deliberations, the jury in the Adele Sorella murder trial sent a question to the judge.

June 24, 2013
The jury finds Adele Sorella guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of her two daughters.

July 8, 2013
The father of the two children, the mobster Giuseppe De Vito, was found dead in his prison cell at Donnacona federal penitentiary in Quebec City.

July 19, 2013
Adele Sorella files for an appeal of her first-degree murder conviction.