Trial underway for Toronto man accused of abducting young daughter in 2016, triggering Amber alert

The trial is underway for a Toronto man accused of abducting his four-year-old daughter from the home where she lived with her mother in Aurora, triggering an Amber Alert in April 2016.

Mario Rodrigues pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include abduction, break and enter, assault, and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.

Rodrigues’ lawyer Daniel Brodsky told Justice Mark Edwards, who is hearing the case alone, that his client’s defence will be that he is not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.

It was in the early morning hours of April 18 when Crown Attorney Jeanaha Kim told the court Rodrigues attended the townhouse where the child lived in the area of Yonge and Wellington streets in Aurora, without invitation, and took the child without permission before driving off in a 2008 Toyota Sienna.

The child’s mother called police and it triggered an Amber Alert. The search ended when Rodrigues allegedly lost control of his minivan near Pembroke, Ont., crashing the vehicle with his young daughter still inside and strapped in a car seat. The child was taken by air ambulance to hospital with non life-threatening injuries.

Ontario’s police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit, was called in to investigate the crash. The agency later said charges wouldn’t be laid against police.

Court heard the couple had no formal custody order at the time of the alleged incident, but the child had always resided with her mother.

In 2013, Durham Regional Police charged Rodrigues with assaulting the girl’s mother. But according to an agreed statement of facts, the charges were withdrawn in September 2014 because the mother stated she did not fear Rodrigues and wished to raise their daughter together.

On the stand while choking back tears, the child’s mother testified that on the morning of April 18, 2018, she woke up after hearing a loud noise. She said she got up and looked out the window before running downstairs to find out what was going on. It’s then she said she saw a window had been broken, opened the front door, and saw Rodrigues standing there.

“He walked in and said, ‘Where is she? Where is J? I’m taking J,'” she testified.

She said she told him, ‘Don’t do this to me,’ and then he punched her on her face causing her to fall down.

She said she followed him up the stairs and this time, he punched her head, again causing her to fall. She testified she briefly lost consciousness. She said she managed to get second time and then he kicked her thigh. When she got up this time, she testified he was walking out with the girl in his arms, adding the child said, ‘Mommy, it’s too loud.’

The mother testified, “He went outside, he was running away from me. So I called 911.”

The trial is expected to last two weeks. Two forensic psychiatrists are expected to testify about Rodrigues mental state at the time of the incident.