Defence, Crown make closing arguments in London woman’s manslaughter trial

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There is one undeniable fact the jury can accept at Barbara Cabala’s manslaughter trial.

Crown and defence agree Cabala, 43, strangled her mother Elzbieta, 59, to death at her mother’s Wilkins Street townhouse on July 7, 2021.

But the defence has argued Cabala was acting in self-defence during a violent confrontation, while the prosecution says Cabala was the aggressor and lashed out in a fit of rage.

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Defence lawyer Geoff Snow and assistant Crown attorney James Spangenberg made their final arguments to the jury Thursday before Superior Court Justice Patricia Moore began her final instructions, or charge, to the jury.

The trial began almost three weeks ago and the jury has heard Barbara Cabala had been living with her mother for about a month before her mother died.

Police, fire and paramedics responded after Barbara Cabala called 911 saying she and her mother had fought and her mother wasn’t breathing. They arrived minutes later to find Barbara Cabala lying at the front door with the phone, still connected to 911, in her hand.

Her mother, bloodied and with no vital signs, lay amid broken pottery and dirt at the back of the townhouse. An autopsy found she died of external compression of the neck.

Cabala had moved into her mother’s home after breaking up with her long-term, common-law partner. The jury heard Cabala and her parents came to Canada from Poland as refugees when she was seven. Her parents divorced later.

It also heard Cabala and her mother had a tumultuous relationship. Cabala testified and told police her mother often belittled her and harshly criticized her life choices.

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Cabala testified she had a university degree and had worked in quality control for a food company until she was sidelined by a brain tumour and suffered a miscarriage. She was trying to pick up the pieces of her life and working in retail when she moved in with her mother.

On the day of her mother’s death, Cabala had the day off and dropped in on some former retail colleagues, the jury heard. She came home, had two glasses of wine, smoked some marijuana and planned to head to a neighbourhood sports pub to watch the NHL finals.

As she got ready, her mother hounded her about her plans, calling her ungrateful and an alcoholic and saying she “knew why (her former partner) left her,” the jury heard. Cabala’s “say it to my face” response sparked the physical confrontation, her daughter testified.

Snow addressed the jury first, arguing Cabala was forthright and honest in her testimony and videotaped police statement that she was brutally attacked by her mother. He added the Crown hadn’t proven beyond a reasonable doubt that she wasn’t acting in self-defence.

“You have to be sure that Barb Cabala was not defending herself in the last moments of her mother’s life,” he told jurors.

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Cabala “has consistently maintained in a clear and understandable way that she was acting in self-defence when she was squeezing her mother’s throat and ultimately caused her death,” Snow added. “She explained it clearly to the police and she swore an oath and explained it to you in court as well.”

The Crown “was trying to suggest that Barb Cabala was this weak woman who couldn’t take it anymore . . .,” he said. “I suggest that this suggestion by the Crown – killing her mother because her life wasn’t going her way and she was sick of being picked on – is nothing more than a myth and a stereotype about this notion about some weak, unhinged woman.

“She was not at a breaking point and she did not snap,” he said.

Instead, Snow argued, Cabala’s mother lunged at her daughter, hit her and threw things at her. “This attack was unexpected and things became chaotic quickly,” he said, and Cabala fought back “for the purpose of making her mother stop.”

Cabala never downplayed anything, admitting she fought back and they were strangling each other, Snow said.

“She was not trying to hurt her mother, she was not trying to cause her death. She was acting in self-defence,” he added, tellings jurors Cabala was “an innocent woman . . . (who) told you the truth.”

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But prosecutor Spangenberg called it “an unlawful killing . . . not a case of self-defence.”

He asked the jury to carefully assess Cabala’s evidence and the circumstantial evidence contradicting her self-defence account.

There are photos of the bloody crime scene, descriptions from police, firefighters and paramedics and a detailed autopsy report showing Cabala’s mother’s extensive injuries, Spangenberg said. “You start picking away at that story, that’s when you notice that some things just don’t make sense.

“It’s not just about calling Barbara Cabala a liar . . . . I’m going to suggest to you that she is not telling you the truth, clearly,” he said.

Spangenberg focused on three areas of her evidence where he said there appeared to be contradictions. During the 911 call, Cabala told the dispatcher her mother wasn’t breathing, but insisted later to police her mother was alive when she called, he said, calling what she said on the phone a “cry wolf” response.

But Spangenberg said her explanation “speaks to honesty and speaks to the reliability (of) what she is telling this court.”

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Cabala also claimed she called 911 right away, but he suggested Cabala hesitated after her mother died, came up with a self-defence explanation, called 911, then “like a damsel in distress . . . staged a fainting at the front door.”

Comparing Cabala’s injuries to her mother’s, especially photos of their necks and the top of their heads, show her mother was far more injured.

“Barbara Cabala snapped, she lost it,” Spangenberg said. “I’m not saying that based on speculation or pure conjecture. I’m saying it based on the injuries.”

“I’m suggesting to you that you disregard her version and that, based on the injuries, you reach the conclusion that Barbara Cabala is the one who attacked . . . It escalated into a beating.”

The jury began its deliberations following the judge’s charge.

jsims@postmedia.com

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