A month before a boy in her care died, Ontario woman said she worried he'd die, trial hears

A month before a child in Brandy Cooney and Becky Hamber’s care died, the couple texted about him falling, acting drunk and having unfocused eyes. They questioned whether he should go to a hospital and whether he might be “dying,” then agreed they should try to warm him up.

According to Sgt. Julie Powers, the Halton Regional Police officer who investigated the couple prior to their arrests in 2024, there are no records to indicate they took the boy for treatment or called for help.

“Unfortunately my thoughts [are] he is suddenly going to die and im going to jail,” Cooney texted her wife on Nov. 20, 2022, the trial heard.

“Well if it comes down to it Ill go to jail not u.”

The Burlington, Ont., women have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder of the boy at the trial which began in mid-September in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. They've entered the same plea related to charges of confinement, assault with a weapon — zip ties — and failing to provide the necessaries of life to his younger brother.

The brothers are referred to as L.L. and J.L. for CBC News's coverage of the trial since their identities are protected under a standard publication ban. L.L. was 12 when he died in Hamber and Cooney’s care on Dec. 21, 2022. His brother J.L., is now 13.

The trial has been told that paramedics found L.L. unresponsive, soaking wet and lying on the basement floor of his bedroom, which was locked from the outside. Witnesses said he was so severely malnourished and emaciated that he looked as if he could be six years old, even though he was twice that age. He died shortly after in hospital.

The Crown argues Hamber and Cooney abused and neglected the Indigenous children. The women’s respective lawyers say the couple did their best to care for boys with high needs and significant behavioural problems, with little help from the Children's Aid Society (CAS) and service providers.

Powers has been testifying since Monday about evidence police collected from the women’s electronic devices going back to 2019. On Wednesday, she discussed evidence from February 2022 through late November that year.

The Milton, Ont., court has viewed numerous texts the women sent one another and to Cooney’s father, who lived with them. Powers said many of the texts were deleted on Dec. 25, 2022, but police recovered them.

The judge-alone trial before Justice Clayton Conlan has also heard hours of audio recordings and viewed more than 50 images and videos, some taken from a surveillance system they used to monitor the brothers.

'A fake fall'

On Nov. 20, 2022, Cooney texted her dad: “Can you wake the f–k,” she asked, referring to L.L.

Her dad responded L.L. was “drunk” and falling over, adding “something is wrong.”

“It’s a fake fall for sympathy,” Cooney said.

But later in the day, she seemed more concerned, telling Hamber in a text he may need a hospital.

“Guess the stupid choices are really getting him,” Hamber said. “No sleep, starving, dehydrated, and no poo…the perfect storm.”

She assured Cooney: “We’re doing the best we can do.”

In text conversations and audio recordings, she and Cooney said L.L. was at least partly responsible for issues he had with eating, sleeping and going to the bathroom.

According to their Nov. 20 texts, the couple decided to let L.L. sleep longer, put him in normal clothes instead of the wetsuit they typically dressed him in, and gave him more time to eat than usual.

Increasingly frustrated

Hamber and Cooney had seemed to become increasingly frustrated with the boys in 2022 and complained about how exhausted they were.

In texts Powers read in court, the women discussed making the boys walk up and down the stairs as punishment and frequently described restraining them with zip ties, a hockey helmet and a tent.

Their defence lawyers have said the restraints were to keep the boys from harming themselves and others.

In one exchange on Oct. 24, Hamber expressed concern the couple would be getting a call from CAS after J.L. told a worker in a therapy session about having his hands tied at home.

“We’re f–ked,” Hamber said. “F–king dick … shows he will tell anyone anything.”

Cooney responded with frustration at the worker for “prying,” and at J.L.

“We can’t keep doing this where [the boys] kill us and try to kill themselves and we do what we can and get called shit abusers,” Cooney said. “I might kill him.”

According to texts presented in court Wednesday, Cooney and Hamber mentioned killing L.L. or J.L. at least four times in 2022.

In a Sept. 20 conversation about L.L. soiling himself, Cooney said, “I’m trying, I really just wanna murder.”

On Nov. 1, Hamber texted her wife about one of the boys, saying, as if she were addressing him: “You are tired because you are malnourished because of your shitty choices.”

She added to Cooney: “I’m gonna kill his whiney ass.”

The trial is set to resume Thursday.