Two Ottawa sisters confessed to killing their elderly mom in her sleep while being investigated by police, jurors were told Tuesday afternoon as a
murder trial got underway
at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
Chau Kanh Lam and Hue Ai Lam are charged with first-degree murder in relation to the death of their mother, Kieu Lam, on Oct. 31, 2022.
In their opening address, Crown prosecutors outlined the case, telling the jury both sisters
gave detailed statements to the police
that they killed their mother. The Crown alleged that they struck Kieu in the head with a hammer, rendering her unconscious, before strangling her to death.
The Crown said the two sisters attacked their mother when she was “sleeping and lifeless,” unable to defend herself or to call for help.
“She gave them life, and they took her life,” prosecutors said.
The Crown said Chau then called 911, telling the dispatcher through a Vietnamese interpreter that she and Hue had killed their mother. At one point, Chau even spelled out the word “kill,” they alleged.
The Crown then
accused the sisters
of planning to kill their mother in the days leading up to the attack because they were mad and angry at her for how they said she treated them.
Both Chau and Hue pleaded not guilty to the charges on Monday morning. The trial is scheduled to last five weeks.
Crown calls first witness
After the opening statement, the Crown called its first witness, Marlo Carlo Villalobos, who was then an ambulance communications officer for the Ottawa Paramedic Service.
Villalobos said he primarily took 911 calls and gathered as much information as possible before sending an ambulance to each location when he worked in Ottawa between January 2021 to March 2024. He now lives in Montreal.
Jurors then heard an audio recording of the 911 call between Villalobos and Chau. They were also provided a transcript of that call, including a certified translation of the Vietnamese portions.
Throughout the call, Villalobos tried to extract information from Chau, but had difficulty understanding her due to the language barrier. He then called the Ottawa Police Service and told the police dispatcher that “somebody killed their mom.”
He then requested a Vietnamese interpreter through LanguageLine Solutions, a service used by the Ottawa Paramedic Service to obtain translation over the phone.
Chau then told Villalobos through the interpreter that she and her sister had killed Kieu. She also told Villalobos through the interpreter that she had been angry at her mother.
Police could be heard arriving to the scene in the middle of the call, and Villalobos ended it shortly after that.
Villalobos told the court he was initially confused because Chau wasn’t sure if she needed paramedics to come to the scene. He also said he had a hard time understanding what Chau was saying in English, which made it difficult to know what exactly happened and whether it was a dangerous situation.
He said he called police because he wasn’t sure if the scene was safe and thought it would be appropriate that police attend the scene as well.
“There was something suspicious about what she said,” Villalobos told the court on Tuesday.
Police officer testifies
The Crown also called Sgt. Santiago De Los Santos of the Ottawa Police Service to the witness stand.
Santos was a constable at the time of the incident, having been with the service for more than 10 years. Throughout the afternoon session, he repeatedly referred to his notes and incident action report to refresh his memory. The report was three pages long and was written immediately after the incident at the first opportunity, he said.
The officer told the court he was working the night shift as a patrol officer at that time. He and his zone partner responded to a “high priority” call from dispatch at around 12:23 a.m. and arrived at the Lam residence at around 12:29 a.m.
Santos said the front door was wide open as he approached the townhome, and he told the court he didn’t see any signs of a struggle or violence or blood. He located Chau and Hue sitting next to each other in the kitchen.
He also told the court it didn’t seem like the two sisters had been involved in a physical altercation with somebody else.
“It was very calm. There was no panic. There was no screaming. It was very quiet,” Santos said in court on Tuesday.
He said he tried to obtain information from the sisters, but added it was “immediately evident” that there was a significant language barrier.
Santos told the jury he tried to ask Chau and Hue where their mother was and if there was another person in the house, but the sisters only pointed their fingers up the stairs to the second floor.
Santos said he wasn’t sure what to expect, only that the Ottawa Paramedic Service said somebody had killed their mother. He then made his way upstairs.
Court adjourned for the day before Santos could finish his testimony, but he is scheduled to continue on Wednesday morning.
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