Adele Sorella appeals first-degree murder conviction

MONTREAL – The  Laval mother recently convicted of killing her two young daughters has filed for an appeal of the first-degree murder conviction.

Forty-seven-year-old Adele Sorella was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in June.

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

Click here for a timeline of events in the Sorella murder trial

The jury delivered its decision on June 24 in a Laval court, after three days of deliberation.

Sorella’s lawyer, Pierre Poupart, said that he believes the guilty verdicts rendered by the jury was unreasonable and not based on evidence.

He noted that the judge, Superior Court Justice Carol Cohen, should not have allowed a videotape of Sorella’s statement to police following her arrest to be shown to the jury.

The father of two children, the former Mafia leader Giuseppe De Vito, was found dead in his prison cell at Donnacona federal prison in Quebec City on July 8.