![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765913948_232_default.jpg\")
Crown lawyer Monica MacKenzie, left, questions Cooney in a Milton, Ont., courtroom on Dec. 9 in the trial that began in mid-September. (Pam Davies\/CBC)<\/p>\nWARNING: This story details allegations of child abuse.<\/p>\n
A boy Becky Hamber and Brandy Cooney were trying to adopt died because of years of \u201ctorture\u201d in their Burlington, Ont., home, the Crown told the couple\u2019s murder trial.<\/p>\n
The women locked the boy in a small basement bedroom, often in restraints even as he was \u201con the brink of death,\u201d without a proper bed, enough food or medical attention, assistant Crown attorney Monica MacKenzie argued on Monday in Superior Court in Milton.<\/p>\n
It was Cooney\u2019s fifth and last day in the witness box, and the final day of the weeks-long trial before it breaks until next month. MacKenzie finished her cross-examination by putting the Crown\u2019s theory to Cooney about how the 12-year-old boy died on Dec. 21, 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both women have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other counts. For days, Cooney repeatedly denied MacKenzie\u2019s assertions, blamed the boy for his deteriorating health or said she couldn\u2019t recall specific details. <\/p>\n
Boy\u2019s death \u2018completely foreseeable,\u2019 Crown argues<\/p>\n
At times Monday, Cooney appeared emotional when discussing the boy\u2019s final hours alive, wiping her eyes with a tissue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou and Ms. Hamber stunted his growth and caused him to be an emaciated \u2018skeleton,\u2019 as Ms. Hamber described him,\u201d MacKenzie said. \u201cUltimately, the tragedy was completely foreseeable to you and Hamber.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNot at all,\u201d Cooney responded.<\/p>\n
Crown lawyer Monica MacKenzie, left, questions Cooney in a Milton, Ont., courtroom on Dec. 9 in the trial that began in mid-September. (Pam Davies\/CBC)<\/p>\n
The trial began in mid-September before a judge alone, Justice Clayton Conlan. CBC Hamilton is referring to the boy who died as L.L. and his younger brother as J.L., who’s now 13 and testified earlier in the proceedings<\/a>. The Indigenous brothers’ identities are protected under a publication ban.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cooney and Hamber are also charged with confinement, assault with a weapon \u2014 zip ties \u2014 and failing to provide the necessaries of life to J.L..\u00a0<\/p>\n L.L. was severely malnourished when he died. He\u2019d stopped growing and weighed the same as he did when he was six years old.\u00a0<\/p>\n What Crown says happened in boy\u2019s final hours<\/p>\n MacKenzie described the events the Crown believes unfolded the night L.L. died, although there\u2019s no video footage past 5 p.m., she noted. The Crown has argued the women deleted it. Cooney has said the camera had stopped working because L.L. had thrown something at it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n That evening, Cooney and Hamber were monitoring L.L., locked in his bedroom, on the security camera and saw him shivering. Cooney went to his room and found him confused, unsteady on his feet and showing signs of hypothermia.\u00a0<\/p>\n They turned the heat up in the house and put him in their outdoor hot tub, said MacKenzie.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBut that didn\u2019t work and you ended up pulling him out?\u201d she asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d said Cooney, who denied putting him in the hot tub at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n MacKenzie said the couple then put him on a black toboggan to transport him inside to the \u201ccold\u201d basement \u2014 which Cooney also denied. They tipped him onto the floor, leaving him in a puddle of water, not breathing.<\/p>\n Cooney attempted CPR while Hamber called 911, MacKenzie said. First responders arrived quickly and found L.L. soaking wet and unresponsive.\u00a0<\/p>\n While they were trying to revive him, Cooney called the Children\u2019s Aid Society (CAS) several times.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou were essentially papering the record while your son you say you loved was in the next room being worked on by first responders, in danger?\u201d MacKenzie said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe were just trying to get a hold of them so they were aware,\u201d Cooney responded.<\/p>\n L.L. was transported to hospital, where he died. Cooney and Hamber also went, but \u201clied\u201d to the emergency room doctor about the state of his health, MacKenzie put to Cooney, who denied that happened.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In the days following, fearing they\u2019d be arrested, Cooney and Hamber deleted text messages and security camera footage, removed the locks on the bedroom doors and hired a company to clean L.L.\u2019s room, MacKenzie argued.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cooney also searched phrases like \u201cdry drowning\u201d \u2014 which is when somebody exposed to water dies later due to water in their lungs, court was told.<\/p>\n \u2018Gagging behind the scenes,\u2019 accused told CAS<\/p>\n L.L. had been \u201cdangerously thin\u201d for at least over a year, MacKenzie said. She showed Cooney and the judge a September 2021 video of L.L., who she described as appearing emaciated, his hip bones and ribs visible, and his arms \u201clike sticks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYes, he\u2019s very thin,\u201d Cooney agreed.\u00a0<\/p>\n He was just as thin if not thinner the following summer, and the women began to create a narrative and \u201cpaper the record\u201d about L.L.\u2019s health, \u201ccovering your butts,\u201d MacKenzie said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d said Cooney.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hamber told the CAS and the boy\u2019s psychiatrist that he\u2019d developed an eating disorder called rumination syndrome, where he’d regurgitate food, causing him to be malnourished, the Crown said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo despite our best efforts, [L.L.] is unhealthy,\u201d Hamber wrote in an email to the CAS on Aug. 19, 2022. \u201cWe are simply sticking to the balanced, hearty, meal schedule and gagging behind the scenes out of view of both kiddos.\u201d<\/p>\n L.L. was never formally diagnosed with this rare condition, MacKenzie noted.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in text messages between the two women, they were calling L.L. \u201cdisgusting,\u201d and \u201cbarferoo,\u201d and Cooney added, \u201ccould die.\u201d Cooney texted a security camera video to Hamber purportedly showing L.L. throwing up on his sleeve and eating it, and described it as \u201camo.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re talking about \u2018amo\u2019 \u2026 you\u2019re talking about ammunition for you and Hamber to deny all responsibility should [L.L.] die?\u201d MacKenzie asked.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, \u2018amo\u2019 would [mean] all the proof we can get so [L.L.] can get into an eating disorder clinic,\u201d Cooney responded. <\/p>\n Accused \u2018doing opposite\u2019 of keeping L.L. alive: Crown<\/p>\n Throughout the fall, MacKenzie said the women were \u201cdoing the opposite\u201d of trying to keep L.L. alive. He was locked in his bedroom, only given pureed food, forced to do exercise and often restrained overnight in a wetsuit, tube-like sleep sack or hockey helmet.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cooney said he wasn\u2019t forced to do exercise and was given adequate food, but didn\u2019t deny the restraints.<\/p>\n Sometimes, L.L. lost control of his bowels, had significant nose bleeds, was dizzy, vomited and said he wasn\u2019t feeling well, said the Crown. In texts, the women speculated he had defecated in his room on purpose, had picked his nose, causing it to bleed, was faking falling and made himself throw up.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cooney said they never got him medical attention because they were regularly consulting with a psychiatrist and waiting for him to get into an eating disorders clinic.\u00a0<\/p>\n He was accepted into a clinic in October, but Hamber refused to proceed with admitting him, said MacKenzie. Cooney responded that she couldn\u2019t remember.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Nov. 20, 2022, L.L. seemed \u201cdrunk,\u201d had unfocused eyes, and was incoherent and shivering, the court previously heard<\/a>. The women put him in warm water, gave him a blanket and traded his wetsuit for real clothes.\u00a0<\/p>\n When his condition appeared to improve, they went back to their usual practices of imposing rules that were impossible for L.L. to comply with and then punished him, MacKenzie said. The “torture” ultimately resulted in his death.<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d said Cooney.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hamber is expected to begin testifying when the proceedings resume in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"wet](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761075131_403_default.jpg\")
A wetsuit was found in L.L.’s room after he was rushed to hospital the night he died. The Crown says he and his brother were forced to wear them. (Ontario Superior Court in Milton)<\/p>\n![\"thin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765913950_411_default.jpg\")
L.L. wore a wetsuit most of the time and was severely malnourished before he died. He’s shown here on Aug. 22, 2022. (Ontario Superior Court in Milton)<\/p>\n