Adele Sorella sentenced to 10 years before chance of parole for 2nd-degree murder of daughters

Adele Sorella, the Laval woman found guilty of second-degree murder in the deaths of her two daughters, Amanda and Sabrina De Vito, has been sentenced to serve 10 years in prison before being eligible to apply for parole.

Sorella was given the minimum sentence for second-degree murder. The Crown had asked for a sentence of 14 years without a chance of parole.

Speaking after the sentence was handed down, ​​Crown prosecutor Nektarios Tzortzinas said it was too early to say whether the prosecution would appeal the sentence.

"We will take the time over the next few days to analyze the decision," he said.

Sorella, 53, had pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder before the trial began in the fall. Defence lawyers argued she was in a state of dissociation at the time of the girls' deaths, whether or not she had caused them.

After six days of deliberating, the jury of six women and six men delivered its second-degree murder verdict March 5. 

At the sentencing, Superior Court Justice Sophie Bourque quoted a letter Sorella wrote to the court asking for forgiveness from Jesus and her daughters, Amanda, nine, and Sabrina, eight. 

"I do not know what happened on that day, and I deeply regret any involvement that I may have had with this terrible and horrible event. I also deeply regret not being there to protect you both, Amanda and Sabrina."

Bourque said the absence of a formal cause of the girls' deaths makes it difficult to examine the circumstances, and she feels the sentence is adequate.

"We can't forget that the sentence delivered today is life in prison — the most serious sentence in the Criminal Code," said Bourque. "Ten years is a long period to go without freedom, a very long period."

She said the sentence fulfils the court's objectives of denunciation and dissuasion.

"This court believes that increasing the parole ineligibility would discourage people in the same situation as Adele Sorella to take the difficult road toward healing."

Appeal in the works

It is the second time Sorella has been prosecuted in connection with her daughters' deaths. She was convicted of their first-degree murders in 2013 but appealed the conviction.

Sorella has also appealed the latest verdict. In April, her defence team, led by brothers Pierre and Guy Poupart, argued the guilty verdicts were "unreasonable" and that Bourque made an error in her instructions to the jury. 

Amanda and Sabrina were found dead in their Laval home on March 31, 2009, by their uncles, Luigi and Enzo Sorella. Their bodies were lying side by side in their playroom on the ground floor of the opulent house on a quiet street. 

Paramedics, police and the pathologist conducting their autopsy found no signs of violence. To this day there is no official cause of death. 

The pathologist, Dr. Caroline Tanguay, hypothesized that the girls died from a lack of oxygen after having been put in a hyperbaric chamber found in the home. The Pouparts said it wasn't right to theorize and pointed to police mishandling of the chamber as evidence. 

No DNA belonging to the girls was found in the chamber. 

The Crown argued Sorella had the exclusive opportunity to kill the children and highlighted inconsistencies in what Sorella's mother, Teresa Di Cesare, testified before the court and what she said in her police interview. 

Sorella has been detained since jurors delivered their verdict.