BARRIE, Ont. - An Ontario mother who drowned her two young daughters in the midst of a custody battle is guilty of two counts of first-degree murder.
The jury returned its verdict Monday after nearly one week of deliberations.
The defence for Elaine Campione conceded she killed her daughters Serena, 3, and Sophia, 19 months, but had urged the jury to find her not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder.
The Crown had argued Campione killed the girls days before a family court appearance so her abusive ex-husband couldn't get custody.
Campione's whole body started shaking after the jury delivered its verdict and the woman broke down crying. She then sat down in the prisoner's box and put her head in her hands.
When Justice Alfred Stong told the court the conviction carries a life sentence Campione began sobbing loudly.
Three of the jurors were wiping tears from their eyes, and the judge told the court that because of the "unimaginable facts of this case" he's ordering the Ministry of the Attorney General to cover any counselling the jurors may wish to have.
"The circumstances of this case are undeniably and inordinately tragic," Stong said after the verdict was read. "One can only hope that they do not reflect, even at their most extreme, a direction of our society."
Stong continued on, telling the court about the "breakdown of the family unit" and an "increasing inability to make personal commitments, much less permanent commitments."
"It is more than disconcerting to think that if Ms. Campione had not been so abused, so used and discarded as a person, her two daughters could still be alive," Stong said.
The seven-week trial heard that Campione spent time in psychiatric wards, attempted suicide, had delusions that people were trying to kill her and steal the girls and exhibited bizarre behaviour including not letting one of her daughters touch anything red and claiming she saw aliens.
Last week, after three days of deliberations, the jury came back with a question for the judge about the phrase "morally wrong."
In his instructions to the jury Stong had told them to find Campione not criminally responsible they must believe that mental illness rendered Campione incapable of knowing her actions were morally wrong -- or that ordinary people in society would view them as wrong.
Minutes after Campione calmly called police on Oct. 4, 2006, saying her children were dead, officers found the girls in their mother's bed, dressed in their pyjamas, holding hands and lying with a photo album and a rosary.
A videotape was found in the room on which Campione addressed the camera, speaking as if she and her daughters were dead.
"Leo, there are you happy?" she says. "Everything's gone ... The idea that you could actually have my children -- God believes me and God's taking care of them now."
She goes on to spew vitriol about her ex-husband, calling him a "hideous monster" and "the devil."
"I want you to know how much I hate you," Campione says on the video. "You couldn't leave us alone. You wanted to win and you won ... Are you happy? ... You beat your wife to death and your children and don't you ever, ever, ever forget it."
The defence for Elaine Campione conceded she killed her daughters Serena, 3, and Sophia, 19 months, but had urged the jury to find her not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder.
The Crown had argued Campione killed the girls days before a family court appearance so her abusive ex-husband couldn't get custody.
Campione's whole body started shaking after the jury delivered its verdict and the woman broke down crying. She then sat down in the prisoner's box and put her head in her hands.
When Justice Alfred Stong told the court the conviction carries a life sentence Campione began sobbing loudly.
Three of the jurors were wiping tears from their eyes, and the judge told the court that because of the "unimaginable facts of this case" he's ordering the Ministry of the Attorney General to cover any counselling the jurors may wish to have.
The seven-week trial heard that Campione spent time in psychiatric wards, attempted suicide, had delusions that people were trying to kill her and steal the girls and exhibited bizarre behaviour including not letting one of her daughters touch anything red and claiming she saw aliens.
Last week, after three days of deliberations, the jury came back with a question for the judge about the phrase "morally wrong."
In his instructions to the jury Stong had told them to find Campione not criminally responsible they must believe that mental illness rendered Campione incapable of knowing her actions were morally wrong -- or that ordinary people in society would view them as wrong.
