Couple accused of murder saw boy on camera — screaming, vomiting on his last day alive, Ontario court told

< warm>WARNING: This story inside information allegations of baby blackguard and includes computer graphic content.

On the final day before a 12-year-old boy died, he was locked in his basement bedroom as his prospective adoptive parents watched him on camera — throwing up, screaming and kicking the door, a murder trial in Milton, Ont., has been told. 

By around 6 p.m. ET on Dec. 21, 2022, the court heard Monday, the boy seemed calmer, Brandy Cooney and Becky Hamber told a Halton Children’s Aid Society (CAS) protection worker in an interview the next day. 

But when Cooney went to check on him, she found “vomit everywhere” and he was unresponsive, protection worker Faisel Modhi said in the witness box, referring to his notes from the interview. 

Modhi testified the women called 911 and told him they had performed CPR on the boy before paramedics and firefighters took over with no success. The boy was rushed to hospital, where he died shortly after. He was severely malnourished, emaciated and weighing the same as a six-year-old. 

They’ve also pleaded not guilty to confinement, assault with a weapon — zip ties — and failing to provide the necessaries of life to L.L.'s younger brother, J.L., who testified recently in the judge-alone trial. Proceedings in Superior Court began in mid-September and are expected to continue into December. 

The Crown argues the couple hated, abused and neglected the children, and exaggerated or made up many of the behavioural problems they reported to service providers. 

The women’s respective lawyers argue the two were doing their best to care for the Indigenous brothers with high needs, with little help from the CAS and service providers.

Modhi began investigating Cooney and Hamber after L.L. Died and while J.L. Was still in their care. The boys were wards of the CAS in Ottawa, where they were from, and lived with the women in Burlington from 2017 to 2022. 

Modhi interviewed Cooney and Hamber in a hotel room on Dec. 22, 2022, and viewed a few clips from the camera in L.L.’s room that had been saved on one of the women’s phones, Modhi told Crown attorney Kelli Frew. 

L.L. Woke up at about 11:30 a.m. On Dec. 21, Modhi said. The boy slept on a small cot, not a bed, and there was vomit on the mattress cover that morning, which was a regular occurrence, he said the women told him. 

Cooney’s father, who also lived in the house, didn’t wash the cover, but instead used a wipe to clean up the vomit, telling Modhi an interview, “'Do you know how much laundry [Cooney and Hamber] had to do already?'”

For the rest of that day, L.L. Was mostly alone and given a breakfast of cereal with protein powder and lunch. He threw up both meals, which Cooney and Hamber told Modhi was because he regurgitated his food and was part of an eating disorder.

Previously, he’d been on a liquid-only diet, Modhi said the couple told him. 

“They admitted [L.L.] was 48 pounds, but stated it was because he would throw up food, chew it again and lick it off the floor,” Modhi said.

L.L. Also kicked and punched the locked door, screamed and cried, Modhi said. In response, the women would play him music and instruct him to walk around his room or do yoga poses. It was unclear to Modhi how the women were communicating with L.L., but the court has heard they’d often use the camera speaker like an intercom instead of going into his room. 

At one point, in a video clip of L.L.’s room, Becky is heard yelling over the camera speaker “for him to lay down because he was being disrespectful,” Modhi said.

At another, L.L. Screamed, “‘This is not going to get any better.'”  

The video clips of L.L.’s room stopped at about 5 p.m., Modhi said, adding they were likely deleted or the camera was turned off. Hamber and Cooney said their internet was “spotty” and the many cameras throughout their house didn’t always work. 

By early evening, L.L. Was given a smoothie and milk in a baby bottle, Modhi noted. Cooney said she then took a blanket away from him, which made him upset, and she told him to “calm down.” The next time she checked on him, he was unresponsive on the floor and covered in his own vomit.

When paramedics arrived, they found him inexplicably soaking wet, cold and with a wetsuit on the floor nearby. The women didn’t explain to Modhi why he had been wearing a wetsuit. 

It was later determined his body temperature was dangerously low. A pathologist has testified he couldn’t determine L.L.’s cause of death, but didn’t rule out hypothermia or malnourishment.

After the interview with the women, Modhi spoke briefly to J.L. Alone in another hotel room, but the boy appeared “very nervous,” didn’t provide much information and repeated the phrases, “Everything is OK, everything is fine — nothing needs to change,” Modhi told the court. 

A CAS supervisor decided not to remove J.L. From Cooney’s and Hamber’s care that night, Modhi said. 

“I did initially have concerns in leaving him in the hotel room, but we were still in the initial stages of the investigation — he was in a public area [the hotel], wasn’t being confined and it was already late,” said Modhi.

About 24 hours later, he, another CAS worker and police returned to the hotel, and told Cooney and Hamber they’d be removing J.L. From their care.

Initially, J.L. Cried in the presence of Cooney and Hamber, but when he was alone with the CAS workers, he appeared happy and talkative, Modhi said. 

He stayed in another foster home for weeks, where the Crown highlighted his success playing with other children and being weaned off many medications he was taking while living with Cooney and Hamber. 

Hamber’s lawyer, Monte MacGregor, cross-examined Modhi, questioning how accurate his notes were and highlighting that he wasn’t fully aware of the boys’ history, including violent outbursts at school. 

MacGregor also focused on J.L.’s behaviour while in the new foster home after his older brother died. He ate too much and threw up, hoarded food, threatened to harm himself and ran away — all behaviours Cooney and Hamber had raised concerns about in the past.

But Modhi said he wasn’t surprised by the younger boy's behaviour as his brother had just died, he’d been removed from what he thought was his forever home and he was living with new people. 

“The trauma of that alone — would it set him off? Potentially yes. It’s very common to see kids with these types of behaviour after significant trauma.” 

If you’re affected by this report, you can look for mental health support through resources in your province or territory.

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