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So much pressure was applied to Elzbieta Cabala’s neck that there were fractures to the back of her larynx.
In all, there were more than 55 injuries found on the 59-year-old mother’s neck during the autopsy after her death in her Wilkins Street townhouse on July 7, 2021.
The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy testified her examination revealed scrapes, bruises and cuts to the neck, bleeding in the voice box and muscles along with tell-tale hemorrhages to the eyelids that indicated Elzbieta Cabala died from external pressure to her neck.
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“There are a lot of injuries that were on the neck,” said Rebekah Jacques who was testifying Tuesday as an expert at the Superior Court jury trial of Elzbieta Cabala’s daughter, Barbara Cabala, 43, who has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter.
The jury took a break from seeing the rest of Barbara Cabala’s police statement after her arrest, which began to be played on Monday, to hear Jacques’s testimony. The pathologist’s account did not begin until after lunch because of legal arguments in the morning.
Barbara Cabala said in a 911 call and to police later that she was attacked by her mother at the Wilkins Street townhouse and was acting in self-defence.
During the portion of the police statement played Monday, she said she had been living at her mother’s home for about a month following the breakup of her long-term relationship. She told Det. Const. Blair Gould she and her mother had a troubled relationship and an argument erupted over Barbara Cabala drinking and planning to go out.
Elzbieta Cabala’s neck was not the only part of her body found to have injuries. The jury saw photos of abrasions to the top of her head and heard Jacques describe injuries to Cabala’s shoulders, face, arms and hands. Jacques said some could be defensive injuries.
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She counted 36 bruises and abrasions to Elzbieta Cabala’s upper extremities.
But the main focus was the neck. Jacques used a plastic model of a neck structure to show the jury where she found internal injuries after reviewing photos that showed obvious bruising, abrasions and two cuts.
Two of the bruises suggested to Jacques they were “caused by fingers,” she said.
The model gave the jury an idea of the larynx structure, made of cartilage, and the two “horns” at the back that rest against the spine. “When we excised Ms. Elzbieta Cabala’s neck, we observed that the horns were fractured,” she said under questioning from assistant Crown attorney James Spangenberg.
Jacques said the fractures weren’t fatal, “but indicated the amount of force applied in the external neck compression.”
There also would have been pressure put on major arteries in the neck that carry blood to and from the head, she said.
She also listed many cuts on the body, some as small as 0.2 centimetres on the nose or as large as six-centimetres on a shoulder. There were also cuts on the back of the neck, on her hands and her right forearm.
The cuts did not contribute to the cause of death, nor did the abrasions found on her head, Jacques said.
There were other injuries, such as broken ribs, which she said may have been caused during the resuscitation efforts by emergency crews at the home after Barbara Cabala called 911, Jacques said.
The trial continues on Wednesday.
jsims@postmedia.com
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