Crown questions Sorella's mother about change in statement at murder trial

Teresa Di Cesare could see she was the person on the screenmaking the statement to police, she told the court Wednesday at her daughter's first-degree murder trial.

She was adamant that one detail in herstatementmust somehow have been wrong.

"I can see it's me talking, saying things, but I don't remember what it was that I was saying," Di Cesare said shaking her head, as she responded to questions from prosecutor Simon Lapierre.

• Sorella and her mother missed doctor's appointment on day her daughters found dead, court hears

"I was not there," she said of her mental state at the time, hours after her two granddaughters were found dead.

Superior Court Justice Sophie Bourque allowed Lapierre to cross-examine Di Cesare, who is a witness forthe prosecution, after he raised differences between what she told police in 2009 and what she testified in court on Monday.

Bourque also allowed the jury to view the video of Di Cesare being interviewed by police on March 31, 2009. That was the day Di Cesare and her two sons, Enzo and Luigi, found the lifeless bodies of Adele Sorella's two daughters, lying side-by-side in their playroom.

Sorella has pleaded not guilty to two charges of first-degree murder in the deaths of her daughters, Amanda, 9, and Sabrina, 8.

Grandmother doesn't remember telling police about appointments

Di Cesare can be seen in the videotelling an investigator that Sorella called her earlier that day to say she wouldn't be able to take her to a doctor's appointment in Montreal because she had spent more time than expected at a doctor's appointment for Amanda and Sabrina.

When the investigator asks Di Cesare if she knew about her granddaughters'appointment, she says she only found out when the girls mentioned it before she left that morning.

But in her testimony before the jury Monday,DiCesaremade no mention of any other doctor's appointment than her own.

"You agree with me that the only part of the video that's wrong and that you do not recognize as correct are the parts relating to a medical appointment for the children?" Lapierre asked Di Cesare Wednesday.

"I told you, I don't remember," she said. "I've seen the video. It's me talking, but I don't remember."

'The shock was too big'

Lapierre's last question was whether Di Cesare had changed her story.

"Would I be right to say that, in fact, the reason you do not recognize what you said in the video is because"

Before he couldfinish, Di Cesare said, "No, no, no I can't say [it's true] because I don't remember."

"The shock was too big; the sadness was too big."

She said her memories from that traumatic evening after the girls' bodies were discovered, and the month-and-a-half following, are gone.

The court heard Monday thatSorellawas supposed to pick her mother up at DiCesare'ssister's place in Montreal later that morning, but never made it.

Di Cesarehad moved in with her daughter and two granddaughters in Laval after Sorella's husband, Giuseppe De Vito, went into hiding from police in 2006. He was wanted on drug-related charges.

The cause of the two girls' deaths has not yet been established before the court. Last week, paramedic and police witnesses told the court their bodies showed no obvious signs of violence.

At the beginning of the trial, the court heard that Sorellawas only located by police after a car accident in the middle of the night.

Wednesday was the trial's 10th day. It continues Thursday.