Accused’s police statement played at trial: ‘I wasn’t trying to hurt her’

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Barbara Cabala said she loved her mother, but she never believed her mother loved her.

“I was supposed to be perfect and I wasn’t,” Cabala told London police Det. Const. Blair Gould during her first statement to the police after her mother Elzbieta, 59, died at her Wilkins Avenue townhouse.

“She made me feel it, criticizing me in every possible way about my life.”

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The first part of the statement was played at Cabala’s Superior Court jury trial where the 43-year-old has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter in the death of her mother on July 7, 2021.

The jury has heard Cabala’s mother was found unresponsive in the home after Cabala made a frantic 911 call, telling the dispatcher her mother had attacked her and she acted in self-defence. When police arrived, they found a bloody crime scene and Cabala’s mother with no vital signs.

Assistant Crown attorney James Spangenberg said in his opening statement last week Cabala’s mother died of external compression to her neck.

However, before getting into what happened, Cabala asked Gould at the beginning of the statement if her mother had a stroke or a heart attack.

“I’m in shock. I’m numb. I’m absolutely numb,” she told Gould. “I haven’t cried a single tear and that’s abnormal for me. I’m a crier.”

Before seeing the interview, the jury heard from Det. Const. Jeni Reynolds, a forensic identification officer who photographed injuries on Cabala after she was brought to police headquarters from the hospital after her mother’s death.

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The jury watched a video of Reynolds taking the photos of the co-operative Cabala, then saw the photos that documented small cuts, abrasions, dried blood and dirt.

During the statement, Cabala told Gould she was an only child and her parents had separated a decade earlier. Her mother was unpredictable, and had refused counselling and medication for her issues for years.

Cabala had only been living with her mother for about a month after splitting from her partner of 13 years, who she said had cleaned her out of money and made it impossible for her to qualify for a mortgage.

“That’s why I had no choice but to move in with my mom,” she said.

She had just started a new job and her dog had just passed away, she told Gould.

Her mother’s criticisms were non-stop, she said. “It’s nothing new, It’s just the way she was, so I just dealt with that. I loved her with all my heart, but we never had that good mother-daughter relationship.”

Their final confrontation began with Cabala announcing to her mother she was going out that night and drinking a glass of wine.

She said her mother began yelling at her about being an alcoholic and said she understood why her longtime partner had left her.

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“She started yelling at me and she got closer to me and she hit me,” Cabala said to Gould.

“She hit me with a few things … as soon as I got away from her I called the police. I didn’t know what she was trying to do. I was trying to defend myself,” she said.

Cabala said her hands were “ripped up” from trying to stop her mother. One deep cut that required three stitches was because she was trying to grab a terra cotta pot from her.

“It just all happened so quickly. I wasn’t trying to hurt her. I wasn’t trying to do anything like that; I was literally trying to defend myself,” she said.

Cabala said she passed out twice during the confrontation and one of the episodes was while she was on the phone with the 911 dispatcher. The jury has heard police officers found Cabala lying on the floor at the front door with the cellphone in her hand and dried blood on her chest, arms and face when they first arrived at the home.

“I can put up with yelling and criticism because I’ve dealt with it, but you don’t touch me,” Cabala told Gould. “You come at me with fists and hands, I’m going to defend myself because I do not deserve to get hit.”

“I’ve never been in physical altercations in my life ever. Ever. With anyone. My mother. Today.”

More of the police statement is expected to be played for the jury on Tuesday.

jsims@postmedia.com

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