Toronto mother Cindy Ali denies killing disabled daughter to end suffering in retrial testimony
CTV
Testifying at her Toronto retrial, Cindy Ali maintained that her disabled daughter, Cynara, died during a home intrusion in 2011, while the prosecution suggested she killed the girl in an act of mercy.
Testifying at her Toronto retrial, Cindy Ali maintained that her disabled daughter, Cynara, died during a home intrusion in 2011, while the prosecution suggested she killed the girl in an act of mercy.
“I would never do that,” Cindy Ali told the court, fighting tears, when asked by assistant Crown attorney Craig Coughlan if she had hurt her daughter. “She was the joy of our family.”
It’s the second time in seven years that Cindy has faced a charge of first-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Cynara, who lived with cerebral palsy and epilepsy.
Cynara died at The Hospital for Sick Children on Feb. 21, 2011. Two days earlier, Cindy called 911 claiming two men had broken into her Scarborough townhouse, located on Burrow Halls Boulevard, searching for a “package.” She told dispatchers that “her baby” was no longer breathing.
First responders found Cindy on the floor, seemingly uninjured, yet unresponsive, and Cynara on the couch without vital signs.
In March 2012, Toronto police charged Cindy with manslaughter, a charge upgraded to first-degree murder in the fall.
When the case went to trial five years later, the prosecution argued Cindy had smothered Cynara and staged her home to look like a break-in had occured. She did this, they alleged, because the burden of caring for Cynara had become too great.
