Mother gets life for killing daughters

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This article was published 18/11/2010 (5630 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BARRIE, Ont. — The image of his two young daughters struggling to breathe as their mother held their heads underwater in the bathtub will haunt Leo Campione for the rest of his life, court heard Wednesday.

His ex-wife, Elaine Campione, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for killing Serena, 3, and Sophia, 19 months. The jury took nearly a week to decide that mental illness did not prevent Campione from knowing it was wrong to drown her children, as the defence had suggested.

Leo Campione was not in court Wednesday as his ex-wife was sent to prison for life with no chance of parole for 25 years, but a Crown attorney read a victim impact statement he prepared.

“The images of their last moments, innocent and helpless as they were, will haunt me forever, in ways I can’t begin to describe,” he wrote.

“I live my life and gain my strength in knowing with each passing day I am one day closer to being with them.”

Elaine Campione drowned her daughters four years ago in the midst of a custody battle with her ex-husband. Her trial heard that she left him because he was abusive. Charges of assault he faced were stayed after his ex-wife was charged with the murders.

The father and his family, who did not attend the trial, are disturbed by “allegations and innuendoes against Leo Campione that have never been tried in a court,” Crown attorney Enno Meijers told the court, noting that the man has not had a proper forum to answer to those allegations.

In his victim impact statement Leo Campione did not address the allegations he abused his wife and once hit their eldest daughter.

But the defence said during trial that he was fighting for custody.

The sisters were found on Oct. 4, 2006, after Campione calmly called police to say her children were dead, though she likely killed them two days earlier.

When officers arrived they found the little bodies dressed in pyjamas, posed in Campione’s bed holding hands. The odour of decomposition was already in the air.

A videotape was also found in the room showing footage from the night of Oct. 2, 2006 of the sisters playing and colouring. The tape was turned off at 8:39 p.m. and then at 9:27 p.m. the video camera is turned back on and Campione is sitting alone on a couch facing the camera. “Leo, there are you happy?” she says. “Everything’s gone… The idea that you could actually have my children — God believes me and God’s taking care of them now.”

— The Canadian Press