Quebec man who identifies as trans after arrest found guilty of murdering wife, children

Ballouz was charged and convicted on four charges: second-degree murder of 38-year-old Synthia Bussières, first-degree murder of five-year-old Eliam and two-year-old Zac. He was also found guilty of arson. The jury required the weekend to assess their judgment of Ballouz.

The trial lasted five weeks, during which the court heard testimony from Crown prosecutor Éric Nadeau that Ballouz had stabbed Bussières 23 times during the night of Sept. 24-25, 2022. Nadeau described how Ballouz moved from his wife to his children, whom he suffocated. Finally, he proceeded to try to set fire to several objects in the apartment. Ballouz then ingested windshield washer fluid in what might have been a suicide attempt, according to CBC News.

Firefighters first discovered the crime scene because the fires that Ballouz had set activated the fire alarm. They found the bodies of the murdered family.

Ballouz, who suddenly decided to transition after his arrest, also acted as his own counsel during the trial and attempted to blame Bussières for killing their children. The tactic failed miserably. Expert witness Maria Fiorello testified how the crime scene overwhelmingly implicated Ballouz, with evidence that he had been trying to clean up the blood from his rampage, as per Reduxx. “The mop was still wet, so it appears it was used to clean up blood,” Fiorello said.

Sylvie Guertin, Bussières's mother, praised Nadeau’s work as the Crown attorney. "He did an excellent job. I thank him from the bottom of my heart," Guertin said Saturday afternoon, according to CBC. She said she just wanted to hear the jury’s verdict and then "begin to grieve."