Cries of relief rang out in a downtown courtroom on Friday as a Toronto mother formerly sentenced to life in connection with the death of her disabled teenage daughter was acquitted of first-degree murder.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Jane Kelly handed down the verdict to a courtroom full of Cindy Ali's family, friends, and supporters. She also found Ali not guilty of the lesser offences of second-degree murder and manslaughter presented by Crown attorney Beverley Olesko.
Ali, standing outside of the courthouse following the verdict, told reporters the decision will allow her family – her husband Allan and three daughters, Amanda, Carissa and Clarissa – the opportunity to properly grieve Cynara after almost 13 years.
“It’s been a really tough road for us,” Ali said, standing beside her family and counsel James Lockyer and Jessica Zita. “Now, it’s time for my family to start healing and grieving.”
Cynara died at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children in February 2011 after what Ali has always maintained was a home invasion at her Scarborough townhouse.
According to Ali, two men broke into the home on the morning of Feb. 19, looking for a “package.” She told police and later testified that one of the men escorted her room-to-room, searching for the item. When Ali returned to the living room, Cynara was lifeless on the couch with the other man standing next to her with a pillow in his hands, she testified.
The two men were never found.
After Cindy called 911 to report the break-in, first responders found Cynara without vital signs. She was resuscitated and brought to the hospital, where she died just over a day later.
Toronto police investigated the case for just over a year before charging Ali with manslaughter in March 2012 and upgrading the charge to first-degree murder seven months.
Speaking outside the courtroom Friday, Ali’s counsel James Lockyer told reporters that he believed that police rushed to a judgment. In his final arguments, Lockyer suggested that a year-long investigation had turned up nothing of significance.
When reached for comment, Toronto police said it conducted a "thorough and comprehensive" investigation into Cynara's death.
"As is the right of any convicted individual, an appeal of the conviction was applied for and granted, and today the presiding Justice found Ms. Ali not guilty," a spokesperson for the service said in a written statement. "The criminal justice system worked as it was designed to."
When the case first went to trial in 2016, the Crown alleged that Cindy had killed Cynara after the girl had become too heavy a burden on the family before staging her home to look as if a break-in had occurred.
Ali maintained her account of the home invasion, arguing that Cynara was never a burden but rather a blessing, to the family -- a sentiment echoed by many of Ali's supporters, including her eldest daughter, husband, and pastor in court testimony. By all accounts, Cindy had always been a loving and caring mother, they said.
A jury deliberated for less than 10 hours before convicting Ali of first-degree murder, handing her a life sentence with no chance of parole.
After winning an appeal that argued instructions given to the jury by the judge in Ali's first trial had been too narrow, Ontario's highest court granted a new, judge-alone trial. The proceedings began on Oct. 16, 2023 and the last witness took the stand on Dec. 18.
In Ali’s most recent trial, the prosecution argued a new motive – that a series of seizures suffered by Cynara in the days before her death sparked a fear in Ali. Prosecutors suggested that, at that moment, Cindy, knowing Cynara had lived well past her life expectancy, concluded that her daughter’s quality of life would also stand to worsen as time went on.
The Crown attorney alleged that, with this in mind, Cindy staged her home before smothering her daughter in an act of mercy.
Again, Cindy denied all allegations put to her, reiterating that she loved her daughter deeply and cared for her to the best of her ability.
Reading her decision Friday, Kelly told the court that she was left in a “state of uncertainty” on where “the truth of the matter lies” when it came to Ali's home invasion claim, but that, ultimately, the Crown had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she had killed her daughter.
“Having reviewed all the evidence in this case, I have a reasonable doubt about Mrs. Ali’s guilt,” Kelly said. “I acquit Mrs. Ali of first-degree murder.”
As Ali approached the outside of the courthouse to speak to reporters, snow began to fall, which she interpreted as a sign from Cynara.
"That's her saying, 'We did it, mom,'" Ali said, holding a single rose, gifted to her by a member of her congregation.
When asked how she would begin to rebuild a sense of trust in public institutions, Ali told reporters it would take time.
“It’s not easy, it will take time, but now, we get to be free.”
