Murder of a mother and her two children | Father drank windshield washer fluid after murders, Crown says

A father attacks his partner by stabbing her 23 times. He then killed his two children aged 2 and 5, started a fire and swallowed windshield washer fluid to take his own life. Three murders committed in cold blood by a father, who has since become a woman.

This is the thesis presented to the jury by the Crown on Monday at the start of this trial at the Longueuil courthouse. Mohamed Al Ballouz, who now identifies as a woman named Levana Ballouz, is charged with the second-degree murders of his partner Cynthia Bussières and the first-degree murders of their children Zac, 2, and Eliam, 5.

In the box, Levana Ballouz presents herself as a woman: long hair dyed blonde, fitted purple jacket, tight sweater, red nail polish. However, at the time of the events, the accused presented herself “physically as a man”, explained the Crown prosecutor M^e Laurence Lamoureux.

“Don’t be surprised if we refer to him as a man. It is not to disrespect or to shock, but to mention the perception of the witnesses,” indicated Mr.^e Lamoureux, who teams up with Me Éric Nadeau for the public prosecution.

Special fact: the accused defends herself alone in the trial. She therefore leads the cross-examinations. The two “friends of the court” lawyers only have a limited assistance role.

What happened on the night of September 24 to 25, 2022 in Brossard?

“For some reason that we do not know, the accused decided to violently take the life of her partner. He tried to clean the place, but was unsuccessful. He took the lives of his young children Zac and Eliam […] then ingested windshield washer fluid to end his life. He set fire to a pile of objects, spread the bodies of his children and lay down between them,” the Crown prosecutor told the jury in her opening statement.

A scene of horror

Around midnight, firefighters were called to a fire at 12^e floor of a building on Boulevard du Saint Laurent, in Brossard. Water flows from the door of apartment 1202. The firefighters break down the door.

“I heard my colleague shouting: victim, victim, victim,” says firefighter Benoît Laramée, who discovered the body of a woman next to the bath.

A colleague then discovers a child. “He was in a little bobette,” relates the first witness of the trial.

In her cross-examination questions, the defendant portrayed the firefighters’ arrival at the apartment as a “forced entry.” “Did you see the accused kill anyone,” the accused asked. “No,” replied the witness.

In its opening statement, the Crown described a horror scene: the body of Cynthia Bussière bathed in a pool of blood in the bathroom. She was stabbed 23 times, according to the lawsuit.

On the bed in the master bedroom, three people are lying. Mohamed Al Ballouz, center, and his two sons at his side.

“There are no sheets. The children only wear a diaper that displays an image of a superhero, Spiderman,” describes M.^e Lamoureux.

The children’s bodies show no injuries. Their bodies are still warm. But only the adult man wakes up in the bed. He has injuries to his hands, torso and neck, details the Crown prosecutor.

“At the foot of the bed, a fire was started in a pile of various objects and debris. All the smoke detectors were detached from their base and were found in the pile of objects,” explained M.^e Lamoureux.

According to the Crown’s theory, the accused tried to “destroy the evidence” before killing her children. How did these die? The Crown did not specify this in the opening statement.

Surveillance videos that will be entered into evidence will show Al Ballouz moving around the building that night. “We’ll see him carrying around beer and windshield washer fluid,” said M.^e Lamoureux.

The trial, presided over by Judge Eric Downs, is scheduled for around ten weeks.