After a seven-week trial, the
Lam sisters were acquitted
after the jury found them not guilty of first degree murder on Sunday evening.
Chau Kanh Lam and her sister, Hue Ai Lam, were charged with first degree murder in relation to the death of their mother, Kieu Lam, in October 2022.
The sisters pleaded not guilty, saying they killed their mother after
suffering from years of verbal and physical abuse
.
“You have been acquitted of all the offences charged. You are free to go,” Ontario Superior Court Justice Narissa Somji told the sisters in court Sunday.
In their closing submissions, defence lawyers Ewan Lyttle and Paolo Giancaterino had
argued that the sisters were acting in self-defence
.
Chau previously testified that her mother would verbally assault her, calling her a “whore” and a “b–tchy c–t” nobody would love.
She also said Kieu would physically beat her. Chau said she escaped the house and ran to a nearby school once after Kieu beat her with a snow brush to the point it broke.
Lyttle and Giancaterino also argued the sisters did not have a lot of options to leave
the abuse
because of cultural expectations.
Daniele Belanger,
a Vietnamese cultural expert
, told the jury Vietnamese children are often expected to take care of their elderly parents as a sign of filial piety, a core value in Vietnamese culture.
Chau previously told the jury that she sacrificed her life to take care of her mother, to the point she was barred from having a social life because her mother wouldn’t allow her to leave the house.
Crown lawyer Julian Whitten argued in his closing submission that killing was an unreasonable and disproportionate response to the abuse they suffered. He also said there was little evidence confirming that Hue was subjected to assault and the severity of those assaults.
In an emailed statement to the Ottawa Citizen, Lyttle said, “This was a sad and complicated case. We tried to provide the jury with the full picture of the Lam family’s challenging background.
“We are grateful for the jury’s careful consideration.”
Both sisters walked out of the Ottawa Courthouse on Sunday evening visibly shaken.
Lyttle didn’t provide details about what’s next for the sisters.
During the early days of the trial, Crown lawyers showed videos of the sisters’ interviews with the police after the incident. In the video, Chau expressed concerns about not having a home to go back to because she couldn’t pay the bills while in jail.
Our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark our homepage and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed.