Burlington, Ont., couple joked about being brothers' jailers in text messages shown at murder trial

WARNING: This story details allegations of child abuse.

In messages to her wife, Becky Hamber referred to herself as “Officer Hamber” and said one of the boys in her and Brandy Cooney’s care was “in Hamber Cooney prison.”

Those texts from Nov. 14, 2021, were one set of many shown at the women’s first-degree murder trial Tuesday in the Milton, Ont., court.

That was at least the second time, the women referred to themselves as jailers of two brothers they were trying to adopt, with Cooney referring to her father — who also lived with them and the brothers — as “Officer Cooney” in December 2020. 

The brothers are referred to as L.L. and J.L. for CBC's coverage of this trial since their identities are protected under a standard publication ban. L.L. was 12 when he died in Hamber and Cooney’s care on Dec. 21, 2022. His younger brother J.L., is now 13.

The Burlington, Ont., women have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in L.L.'s death at the trial that began in mid-September in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. They've entered the same plea related to charges of confinement, assault with a weapon — zip ties — and failing to provide the necessaries of life to J.L. The Crown argues Hamber and Cooney abused and neglected the Indigenous children.

Crown lawyer Monica MacKenzie played the court more audio recordings taken from the women’s electronic devices and showed multiple sets of text message conversations.

Halton Regional Police Service Sgt. Julie Powers testified for the second day in a row. On Monday, the officer who led the investigation into Hamber and Cooney said police were able to extract data from the couple’s phones and iPad following their arrests in February 2024. Some were recordings the women took or saved from a security camera system they used to monitor the boys. 

In an 80-minute recording MacKenzie played, the women scolded the older boy, L.L., for “peeing and pooping” himself. One of the women told the then-11-year-old he was “choosing” to do so in a misguided attempt to get what he wanted and was “years away from having free access to the washroom and the home.” 

They referred to him standing in his room all day long and said they’d taken away his furniture due to “unsafe choices.”

The trial has been told that paramedics found L.L. unresponsive, soaking wet and lying on the basement floor of his bedroom, which was locked from the outside. Witnesses said he was so severely malnourished and emaciated that he looked as if he could be six years old, even though he was twice that age. He died shortly after in hospital.

The women’s respective lawyers argue the couple did their best to care for children with high needs and significant behavioural problems, with little help from the Children's Aid Society (CAS) and service providers.

They say, for example, that the women had to confine the boys to keep them from running away, and dressed them in zip-tied wetsuits to keep them from peeing around the house. The defence also says the boys would harm themselves or others. 

The judge-alone trial before Justice Clayton Conlan has heard from witnesses including first responders, medical experts, teachers, therapists, doctors and J.L. himself. The trial is expected to continue until at least mid-December.