Judge Éric Downs, of the Superior Court, did not mince his words when reading his judgment Friday on the sentence that Mohamad Al Ballouz will have to serve for the murders of his wife and their two children, committed in Brossard in 2022. The law imposes life imprisonment, and the magistrate combined this length of incarceration with a long period of ineligibility for parole for the death of Synthia Bussières.
The magistrate notably called Ballouz a sadist and narcissist and vilified him for having perpetrated in his defense at trial “acts of cruelty” against his ex-spouse and her family “even in the legal arena”.
The jury delivered its verdict on Monday: Mohamad Al Ballouz, who now presents herself as a woman under the name Levana Ballouz, was found guilty of the first degree murder of his two children and the second degree murder of Synthia Bussières.
As first-degree murder automatically carries a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years, Friday morning's sentencing exercise for the murder of Synthia Bussières may have seemed theoretical, since it would not add years of detention. But the law provides that a conviction must be decided for each crime, and this also allows us not to relegate to second place the murder of this woman and mother of two toddlers, Eliam and Zac.
For second-degree murder, the penalty is life in prison, with no possibility of parole for a period of 10 to 25 years. It was this period that remained for Judge Downs to determine. He indicated that the inadmissibility threshold of 15 years should only be crossed when the prognosis of dangerousness is convincing taking into account the seriousness of the offense and the personality of the accused. The judge “widely exceeded” it here, opting for 20 years, a duration at the top of the range, given the circumstances of the murder, the sadistic character of the accused and her “great danger”.
The magistrate had carried out the exercise of examining the aggravating factors of his crime against his wife as well as the mitigating factors. He only found one: having a stable job.
The list of aggravating factors weighed heavily: the judge noted the “extreme” violence of the murder, the mistreatment inflicted on an intimate partner, inside the family home, the fact that the children were there , Ballouz's attempts to cover up his crimes, the “indescribable” suffering imposed on Synthia's loved ones and also the trauma experienced by the first responders, some of whom were afflicted with post-traumatic stress.
“The court must denounce the disgusting murder of a woman by her partner in a family context,” he added.
Judge Downs also imposed a four-year sentence on Ballouz for starting a fire after his murders without regard for the safety of the other residents of his apartment tower.
At the end of the trial, the jurors seem to have agreed with the Crown's theory according to which Ballouz stabbed his partner to death before killing their children – the method used remains unknown, because the pathologist was unable to determine the cause of their dead — then drinking windshield washer fluid and starting a fire. The latter triggered an alarm, and that's why the first responders discovered the crime scene: Synthia was lying in her blood in the bathroom, while Ballouz was lying on the bed with his two dead boys.
At the trial, Ballouz defended himself without a lawyer. She did not present evidence, but offered in pleading to the jury a theory according to which it was her partner who killed the children, before attacking her. Ballouz would only have defended himself, it was argued.
A “far-fetched thesis” and implausible, underlined Judge Downs, which the jury, “unsurprisingly”, rejected.
Friday, the judge criticized her way of conducting her defense: “the court cannot remain stoic at the sentencing stage and must denounce the behavior of the accused at this stage. […] [Ballouz] abused his right to submit submissions to torture the victim’s family and vilify Synthia to her grave.” The judge had stopped her from reading a “slanderous” letter in the courtroom.
After the judgment was read, Ballouz announced her intention to appeal, without specifying whether she was targeting the verdict or the sentence, or both. She had previously requested to be incarcerated in the Joliette women's prison, but Judge Downs indicated that this decision was up to the prison authorities.
